Some students struggle balancing the pursuit of their degree with their other job and volunteer responsibilities — others thrive. Bebe Falkner, a junior Southern Studies and interdisciplinary studies major from Christiana, Tenn., just about does it all with a smile on her face.
“I’m a full-time student, so I take 19 hours; most of those are in-person classes,” Falkner said. “On the weekends, I get close to 30 hours in at work. I cook at a restaurant here in town in the back-of-house.”
Falkner is also the head of Flower of Life Food Rescue, a food distribution organization on campus.
“I probably put in about 15 hours or so into distribution,” Falkner said. “We pick up from four houses (Delta Gamma, Alpha Delta Pi, Chi Omega and Kappa Delta) primarily on campus. We take whatever excess food we have from the week that would originally go into waste and box it up into plates. And then, we take it to four locations across Oxford to low-income and government-housed individuals.”
Falkner takes this job seriously, considering it to be an important aspect of her life that allows her to serve and connect with others.
“For me, food is the heart of everything,” Falkner said. “I work in a kitchen, so distribution’s a big part of my life. And so, everyone is served a plate with dignity. It doesn’t matter if it’s something I give them at a restaurant or if it’s something I give them at food distribution.”
In addition to her work with Flower of Life Food Rescue, Falkner is involved with the UM Beekeepers Association, participating in the care and keeping of honey bees.
“I help maintain the campus bees, which are at the field station in Abbeville,” Falkner said. “That takes up a lot of my time at the beginning of the fall semester because we’re harvesting the last little bit of honey.”
Music is another one of Falkner’s passions. She shares this love with others on UM’s radio station, Rebel Radio 92.1.
“I have a radio show that I do on Wednesdays,” Falkner said. “It’s called ‘For Folk’s Sake,’ and it’s blues, bluegrass and folk music.”
Falkner is also heavily involved in her church, St. John’s the Evangelist Catholic Church, assuming a leadership role to educate children in her faith at weekly Sunday school sessions.
Rather than letting herself become overwhelmed with a full plate, Falkner handles it all with grace, driven by her passion for everything she dedicates her time to.
“Everything I do, I adore,” Falkner said. “I genuinely do feel like I give myself to everything because it’s things that I value and I cherish. And that goes from educating people and the importance of eating locally, like talking about honey.”
Falkner recommends two main ways for students to become more connected with others.
“One, take interesting classes,” Falkner said. “Interesting people take interesting classes. Last semester, I took a Bob Dylan class, so I met some of my very best friends in the world.”
Falkner also suggests seeking opportunities to learn through what the campus provides.
“I also really recommend looking at bulletin boards and look at speakers that are coming to campus,” Falkner said. “We have so many wonderful talks (in) the department of Southern studies.”
Falkner, whose family is from Mississippi, said her plan for the future is to work in environmental law, which she was inspired to do through her love for the South and its people.
“I’m a seventh-generation Mississippi cattle farmer, and I grew up around farms, around farmers,” Falkner said. “I grew up around very common folk, and I love them.”
Falkner realized in high school, while working as a congressional page for Sen. Roger Wicker in Washington, D.C., that, despite what she had been told, going to school in the northeast was not necessary to achieve the type of change she thought was needed.
“I went north,” Falkner said. “And I got there, and I realized the people I love and I care about are not represented.”
This realization ultimately played a part in Falkner choosing to come to Ole Miss.
“I found the Southern studies department — it brought me here,” Falkner said. “Then I was like, well, I want to do more than that. I wanted to do politics and stuff, but now I want to do agricultural environmental law because so often, the small people are overlooked.”
Falkner said that so many of the major decisions she has had to make force her to realize what it is she truly cares about.
“(I care about) my people,” Falkner said. “Mississippians, Southerners — I care about everyone. Everyone’s God’s child. Who am I? I am a daughter of the South, a daughter of Christ.”
