Born into an impoverished agricultural family, hard work was necessary to put food on the table and keep the house warm in the winter. I always knew I wanted to go to college but with no family wealth to lean on or grades impressive enough for a full ride, attending a work college like Berea College was my obvious choice. Berea College helped me build on and reinforce an attitude of hard work to accomplish what I wanted in life while teaching me new skills. My degree in history taught me how to process a plethora of information in a short amount of time and the importance of understanding the context, but my labor position at Berea College taught me the skills that would set me on my career
trajectory. As a teenager I always had an interest in computers and saved up money from my part time jobs to build my own pc. That interest in technology led me to three academic years and three summers as a student worker within Berea College’s Information Technology department. Thanks to Berea College and the work study program, not only did I graduate debt free with a BA in History, I also had three years of work experience that launched me
into a successful career in IT. Without my experience in the work-study program, I would not have become the youngest member of my cyber security team supporting the federal courts. Without these foundations of hard work, I would not have been able to attain my Masters in Business Administration while balancing a full time job, relationships and raising a young child.