It's not hyperbole.
Without my community college experience, I would not be where I am today and either would countless members of my family and my husband's family.
From 1987-1989, I attended college in Utica, New York. The city where my family and my husband's family were from. No member of our immediate families had finished college. Both he and I graduated from Mohawk Valley Community College together. As a result, my younger sister graduated from there too and pursued an advance degree. My husband's younger brothers both followed him, and both graduated with degrees from MVCC. We now have a niece and a nephew who both attended, and both went onto graduate with advanced degrees.
The education is rigorous.
Our professors inspiring.
The degrees priceless.
Our professors even helped us see what could be possible for us after graduation. They are the reason my husband went onto SUNY Polytechnic Institute. It was a professor's advanced degree displayed on his office wall and a heartfelt conversation that pushed my husband to further his education.
I found myself and my voice on the MVCC campus.
I made lifelong friends on that campus.
I can honestly say that I do not have one bad memory of my community college experience. Not one! How many of you can say that about institutions that have been a part of your life?
I know this story isn't new, different or earth shattering. How do I know? Because we heard story after story just like this about a number of community colleges and public colleges in the SUNY and CUNY system as NYSUT rallied for a #NewDeal4HigherEd on the Million Dollar Staircase in Albany last week.
A #NewDeal4HigherEd is NYSUT's campaign to achieve quality, accessible higher education for ALL! Learn more here: New Deal 4 Higher Education
While NYSUT leaders and our legislative allies were sharing these stories at the rally, I wondered why we don't hear about these stories more. If you have a story to tell, I urge you to share it with your legislator. Let your elected representative know that you want the years of chronic underfunding of public higher education to end.
Because of my A.A.S. degree from Mohawk Valley Community College, I was hired immediately after graduation.
I went to work as a school secretary at Oneida County BOCES at age 19. There, in that school, I fell in love with teaching and went back to school at night to obtain my teaching degree from another public college, SUNY Oswego.
I went on to teach elementary, middle and high school for 25 years. I even became an adjunct professor in the summer months for an Equal Opportunity Program (EOP) to help others who were first generation college students start their fall semester with the skills they needed to be successful.
It's not hyperbole. Without Mohawk Valley Community College, I would not be where I am today.
So, I ask you.
Shouldn't a real investment in higher education be a priority for everyone this legislative session?
What are you prepared to do to make that happen?
