When I graduated from high school, way back in 1979, I knew nothing about college, except that my parents told me that I was going.
As a senior at Hickman Mills Sr. High School, I enrolled and was accepted to Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University). Once there, I did not value education, partied, skipped classes, got on academic probation a few times and by the time my junior year rolled around, I decided that I needed an automobile, so I got a job, reasoning that I would return to school the following semester. At the time, I was 20 years old, and did not return to school until I was 61.
Lots of life happened in between during that time. I worked in a hospital, was a security guard, worked on an assembly line, got married, raised four children, got divorced, started a not-for-profit organization, became a professional bicycle racer, got into the educational field somehow and became a mentor/tutor for youth.
I came to UMKC by way of a KC Scholars scholarship after a 40-year gap in pursuing my education. I was working as a camp counselor at a STEM camp and realized that there were 5th graders at the camp that were smarter than me. It convinced me that I needed to go back to school to finish getting my education.
Another counselor at the STEM camp was a KC Scholars recipient who was attending college at Kansas University told me about KC Scholars Adult Learner program. I applied for the scholarship and became a recipient of a $50,000 scholarship over 5 years. I was going to school!!
I had always wanted to attend the University of Missouri-Kansas City and probably should have come here when I first graduated. Here was my chance. I applied and was denied because my last GPA from my time in college was an abysmal 1.62. But I was given the opportunity to write and submit an essay to the Board of Admissions, “Why I Deserve to be Admitted to UMKC” and I was approved to start classes for the Fall semester of 2021. My whole life was about to change, but I could not have predicted how and how much.
The summer before the Fall semester of 2021, I got sick and was in the hospital for 2 months. I didn’t know it at the time, but my sickness was life-threatening, having an abscess on my colon, which required surgery, and somehow, an Ebola virus that had found its way into my blood system. Both required weeks of recovery and I knew that I would not be able to be ready to start school.
Reaching out to both KC Scholars and UMKC about my sickness, both were understanding of my situation and transferred my scholarship and school eligibility to the Spring semester of 2022. I fully recovered from my ailments and began school.
Since then, I have become an Honors Student (I’m maintaining a 3.85 GPA), a member of the Tri Alpha Honors Society, and a KC Scholars Ambassador. It took a lot for me to get to college; I value getting an education and I am happy to be here.
Attending college is not easy. And trying to manage an academic career as an adult is not easy. But, thanks to KC Scholars, my life as an adult student/learner at UMKC has me thinking about what other KC Scholar adult learners are experiencing as they travel on their own journey through the halls of learning at UMKC. What could it be like for them? How do they get it done? Why are they doing it?
I have committed myself to finding other KC Scholar adult learners at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and sharing their stories.
