“I want to be a homicide detective. When I was little, one of my friends got killed in a car accident. No one really investigated it. The person who drove the car got shot, and he died in the car accident. It’s not something that I’ll forget. It just drives me to be a better person in this world. We need people to be the change. I would like to solve unsolved crimes. I want to get my master’s, and then I want to try to get my hands in the parole and probation department and work my way up from there. My ultimate dream and goal is to be like ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.’ I know it’s a TV show, but I want to be a part of it.” – Amaya Mayotte Jemison, 22, criminal justice major at Miles College

Amaya Mayotte Jemison is from California and loves the Southern hospitality and the changing seasons she has found in Alabama. (Tamika Moore / People of Alabama)

Jemison is originally from Long Beach, California. Her favorite thing about Alabama?

“My friends and the people here who I’ve met and the connections I’ve made. One thing I can say about Alabama that California does not do – everybody down here is very friendly. In California, you can walk past a person and say hello and they’re just going to ‘mean mug’ you. The Southern hospitality thing, we don’t have that back in California. And my mom is from Alabama. I came down here to go deep into her roots. And, … here you get all four seasons. I’ve never experienced that.”

These are the faces and stories of people from all walks of life who call Alabama home. People of Alabama is a Red Clay Media and Alabama NewsCenter partnership.