Winning an Education Against the Odds

by Cindy Hill

The Odds of Graduating

Nationwide, almost half of all college students fail to complete an undergraduate degree in six years from the date they begin their studies. Women comprise the majority of undergraduate students, more than 60 percent of graduate students, and have a lower dropout rate than men.

The college graduation rate has stagnated for decades, but in the last several years has slid downward, especially in some segments of the academic population. The graduation success rate for public two-year college students has dropped from a high of nearly 40 percent in 1989 to a present level of about 25 percent. The number of first-year students at four-year colleges who return for their second year has slid from 77 percent in 1991 to 71 percent in 2012.

Vermont's college completion rate is a little higher than the national average, with about 62 percent of all undergraduate students--and 67 percent of women--obtaining a degree within six years. As laudable as this is compared to other states, it still means that about a third of women who start college in Vermont do not finish.

In January 2013, the National Commission on Higher Education Attainment issued a report entitled "College Completion Must Be Our Priority." It recognized the rapidly changing college student demographics that increasingly include older and part-time students. It also recognizes the long-held focus on getting students into college—a focus that did not emphasize the need to work steadily, overcome obstacles, and complete that education once the student is admitted.

At the same time, another report released by a coalition of higher education advocacy groups found that students who leave college without a degree--especially those with student loan debt--are economically worse off than they were before they started taking classes, and are likely to plunge underwater financially.

Staying the course, and getting that mortarboard and tassel continue to have mighty rewards—although those rewards remain lower for women graduates than for men graduates. Still, the average income of a woman with an associate's degree is about 50 percent higher than the average income of a woman with only a high school diploma, and the average income of a woman with a bachelor's degree is double that of a female high school graduate.

Lack of childcare. No money for books. Family pressure to stay home or go to work instead of "wasting time" in college classes. Lack of examples to follow when no one else in the family has gone to college. A struggle with English as a second language. Physical disabilities that make getting to class virtually impossible. Bad experiences in primary and secondary education. Self doubt.

The reasons to drop out of college are endless. Yet the majority of women entering Vermont's colleges succeed—some against incredible odds.

Why do some women make it to graduation when so many, about a third of those who start, do not? Vermont Woman asked some of Community College of Vermont's (CCV) most remarkable female students how it is they made their successes happen.

Doing It for Carter

When Kasey Warner graduated from high school in Chelsea in 2001, she didn't think she needed to go to college.

Working full time and living on her own, Warner was not going to surrender her independence to go back to school. As years passed, she went from job to job,—temp work, banking, waitressing, working as a licensed nursing assistant--always looking for something better.

Warner

Kasey Warner, who graduated with two majors, says her real-life business experience helped in the class room. photo: Jan Doerler

Then came Carter. "Those jobs didn't allow for advancement unless I had a degree," Warner said. "So it was either stay in dead-end jobs or go back to school so I could continue to climb the ladder. With the economy and all that, I know I need to have the degree to advance to a position where I can give my son things I didn't have growing up. It boils down to him."

Starting at CCV while she was pregnant at age 27, Warner faced the perfect storm awaiting every single mother returning to school: a tight financial squeeze and the constant scheduling- juggle of trying to balance motherhood, classwork and child care. One key to Warner's ability to succeed in her college education was the strong support of friends and family.

"It took some adjusting," she said, "but when I had to take night classes, friends would babysit for me, and when I was under time crunches, they'd take him from me for a little while."

Warner received tuition assistance from Reach Up, Vermont's Postsecondary Education (PSE) program, but her educational ambitions frequently exceeded the program's parameters. Pursuing a double major in business and financial accounting would put her over the number of credits per semester for which the program will pay. And it is not uncommon for an accounting textbook for a single class to cost $300. Warner made up the gap by adding 20 hours a week of work-study in CCV's Montpelier business office to her tight schedule.

She also received merit scholarships, and this year was awarded a new Student Leadership Scholarship from CCV, honoring not only her high academic success, but her engagement in community and campus volunteerism, particularly her role as a peer tutor. Volunteering to tutor fellow students gave Warner useful insight into why some students don't make it to graduation day.

"There is a stigma that students associate with going to get help," she said. "By the time they are failing or getting an incomplete, they put it off too long, and there's no way to fix it, so they ultimately drop the class, or don't continue."
Kasey Warner never considered quitting. She had some setbacks, such as learning that online courses were not for her; she prefers face-to-face communication. But the investment of her time and her goal of making a better career to support her son kept her going. Although many high school guidance counselors still advise young students to go straight on to college, Warner feels her years working in different business settings gave her a leg up, inspiring her choice of two majors and allowing her to apply real-life business experience in the classroom.

Graduating this spring from CCV, Warner has applied to Johnson State College, and is determined to complete a bachelor's degree within the additional two years allotted her under Reach Up's PSE assistance program. Her motivations are clear: "The knowledge you get being in school is awesome. And now, especially with the economy tough, and everyone looking for jobs, for one opening there are thousands of applicants. So having that degree will make you stand out."

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From Student to Dean

Debby Stewart is the daughter of divorced parents who never went to college. Despite her expectation while in high school that she'd go on to college, "I didn't know how that happened and neither did my mother. We didn't know any of the concrete knowledge or steps to get there. So at a certain point it just felt like an impossible kind of thing for me."

College finance speakers at her high school enthusiastically prodded Stewart to apply for merit scholarships in light of her stellar academic record. But even the promise of financial support could not overcome her mother's caution about treading into this unknown endeavor.

"Her response was, well, what about the rest of the money?" Stewart recalled. "My mother's fear was I would set off on a bus, and there wouldn't be enough money for me to come back if it was a big mistake. There was a real concern that I shouldn't accept money, as I didn't know what was expected of me, or how to pay it back."

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Every semester I would sign up for classes and start, and
then realize how hard it was. There were so many times I thought,
when I get through this semester, that's it.  ~ Debby Stewart

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Given the struggle today's families have repaying student loans, the worry was not unfounded.

Doubt, caution and a relationship with a boyfriend in Stewart's senior year of high school in 1981 undermined her college plans. Although her guidance counselor warned that if she didn't go straight to school she'd never go back, her mother was "somewhat relieved, as she knew the pathway that went through marriage and family, and didn't know the path through college," Stewart said.

Stewart got married, had a baby, and then wound up as the single mother of a toddler. She steeled herself against the doubts and fears that remained, and walked into the CCV Springfield office. She started classes in 1986, and by the time she graduated with her associate's degree in 1989, she was remarried with an additional child.

The intense challenges of juggling parenting, family schedules, money and classwork provided great focus. "I found the [challenges] really helped me to become clear about what I wanted," she said. "That was such a gift to be given."
That clarity led her straight through, from an associate degree at CCV to a bachelor's degree and then an MFA in poetry at Vermont College. "It felt like where I should be. I loved being in college," she said. "I benefitted from small classrooms, not lost in a big flurry of students, and the effort of so many wonderful faculty, interested in me individually, able to really encourage me, and support me, and tell me this is right, you're doing the right thing. Keep going."

stewart

Debby Stewart, despite stellar grades in high school, didn't know the steps to get to college. "It felt impossible!"
photo: Tricia Kent

Wanting to give back to the college environment in which she'd found such satisfaction, Stewart applied to teach at CCV within a few weeks after completing her MFA. She started by teaching a single course, then applied for a position as coordinator of academic services, then was awarded the position of academic dean. In 2010 she moved to her current slot as dean of students.

It was an unexpected career turn. She had not anticipated going into higher education administration; her career goal was to be a writer. But in hindsight, this path made sense. In the course of a difficult childhood, school was a place of refuge where Stewart could create her own positive environment of success.

Attending college, and then teaching were both transformative events that ultimately led her to a position where she can help foster academic experiences for struggling young students whose prior negative experiences with educational settings often give rise to negative expectations for success in college.

Debby Stewart's path was not always smooth. "Every semester I would sign up for classes and start, and then realize how hard it was. There were so many times I thought, when I get through this semester, that's it. I need to take a break. I need to take time off."

Juggling work, school and family schedules is a "delicate puzzle," she said. "It's like crafting the Eiffel tower with toothpicks, and if one toothpick gets out of place there's a real threat that everything will fall apart."

Stewart credits a combination of luck and a supportive husband with getting her through. Her parents did not have a lot to give to assist her, but they were proud of her, and did not undermine her journey through higher education—a distinct advantage over the many households where families try to actively sabotage a college student's studies.
Stewart encourages new college students to reach out to their peers. Starting a college class with a room full of strangers can be daunting, but also liberating. "Being in classes with different types of people, you can re-create yourself," she said. That new self-image is often the necessary cornerstone of establishing a path out of poverty and into a new life. "It's a really challenging and courageous thing to do."

Appetite for Knowledge

Monica Mossey was born in Burlington in 1984 with a rare, profound congenital heart and lung condition: truncus arteriosus type II, in which the aorta and pulmonary artery grow as a single blood vessel rather than two. She experiences complications including severe pulmonary hypertension and hypoplastic arteries. She has one-and-a-half lungs, a conduit in her heart and three stents in her right lung; she was born with severe hearing loss, and is now deaf.

Her life has been punctuated by serious surgery, illness and infection as her young body struggled forward through major and minor setbacks. Through her teens, her body was slowly dying as she watched her peers play sports, go swimming, spend the night at friends' houses, go to the mall. Filled with envy, and a certainty that her time on earth would soon be over, Monica read, drew and studied.

In early 2001 a third open-heart surgery changed her life. It gave her enough strength to get a driver's learners permit, and then in 2003, to leave her wheelchair, and walk across the stage at Milton Junior/Senior High School to receive a diploma with high honors.

Mossey graduated from CCV this January with an associate's degree in business, and a 3.9 GPA.

"Despite all my health issues, I live life to the fullest, and try to lead as normal a life as I can," she said. "One way I try to lead a normal life is to continue furthering my education since I have a voracious appetite for knowledge. Plus, like other people, I have dreams for the future. To accomplish this, I enrolled in college.

However, my college experience has not been the same as my siblings or peers. I have had to overcome many obstacles and hurdles because of my health."


She can't walk long distances, carry the oxygen she needs, or pilot the wheelchair by herself; she has difficulty following the sign language interpreter and the professor while taking notes at the same time, and she cannot handle a full college course load. Online classes were the answer for her.

Twelve years since her successful open-heart surgery, Mossey's health is once again declining. She is back to using a wheelchair and usually on oxygen. One of her stents is closing up, and the heart conduit is leaking. She pushes herself forward, however, now dedicating serious effort to finding business work that she can do from home.

"I still continue to take each day one at a time, and to work through the difficult times," she said, citing perseverance and her passion for learning as the keys to her success. The dedicated support of family and friends also helped push her through the hardest moments.

mossey

Monica Mossey graduated from CCV with a 3.9 GPA.
Open-heart surgery didn't stop her. photo: Jan Doerler

 

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I know that there are some things I just cannot change,
so I live and deal with each day one at a time.
I am laughing and as happy as I will ever be. ~ Monica Mossey

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"Being an independent person, a hard and serious worker, having motivation and confidence in myself are other factors that have led me to succeed in my academic studies," she said. "I know that there are some things I just cannot change, so I live and deal with each day one at a time. I am laughing and as happy as I will ever be. The things that I am able to do, I do it the best I can. I take great pride in the things that I can do, and I excel, and do them excellently."

Factors for Success

A graduate of Middlebury College and University of Vermont (UVM), Dee Stefan is executive director of the CCV academic centers in Winooski, St. Albans and Middlebury. She's been an administrator at CCV since 1985.

Stefan has watched the toll that increasing time demands and a lethargic economy have imposed on college efforts. "Our students have always juggled competing priorities in their lives, but never more so than today," she said. "The need to work while attending college presses in on them, as do family obligations and a tight job market when they graduate. The pressure to succeed academically can be intense, and yet the reality is that many must carve out precious moments between these other priorities to meet the demands of school."

Stefan also pondered the effect that social media and small-screen dependence are taking on "the age-old academic building blocks of close reading, careful writing, quantitative reasoning, interpersonal communication and critical thinking."

Student resilience in this high-stakes academic era comes down to personal commitment. The students most likely to succeed are those who have a goal, Stefan said: "A real goal that means something to them, comes from inside them, and [is one] that they can keep front and center so that when they hit the inevitable rough spots along the way, they recognize them as speed bumps and not collapsed bridges."

College structure, such as small classes, can help fuel the fire to reach that goal. When students think their voices matter to the quality of the conversation in their classes, they are more likely to attend. "But at root, students who come to us with grit and determination and a strengthened sense of their own self-worth are more likely to persist through adversity." 

Students who are the first in their families to attend college often have the most difficult time, and must summon great courage "to walk through the door to a strange new world, without the benefit of the assumption that they will go to college and be successful. Often they lack the vocabulary, the context, the familiarity, the sense of belonging that seeps in by osmosis when siblings or parents or aunts or uncles—or even friends—have gone to college," Stefan said.

College is a place of growth, and some growth comes easily, and some is excruciatingly painstaking. Small and steady forward steps characterize the path to graduation. The very courses that students often dread, or undertake thinking that they will never get it, are often filled with "aha" moments that begin to build a foundation of positive experiences that lead to success.
Cindy Hill, a professor at Champlain College, is also a contributing editor at Vermont Woman.