About 10 years ago, I was pulling triple duty. I was a student at Portland State University, majoring in anthropology and living on campus. I was a single dad with full custody of my then two-year-old daughter, who lived with me in a dorm room. And I was enlisted in the Marine Corp with thoughts of going full duty as an officer. But there was a different plan for me.
During my undergrad years, I was a part of a diversity program that came with a lot of support and different opportunities for me to engage with other students. The people around me—all educators—were always positive and pushed me to do more within the program. So I did, and started a support group for men of color at the college.
One day, my professor and mentor asked me about my career plans. I didn’t know. I had done some internships in the admissions office and recruiting for the university—and that sounded fun. Without hesitation my professor said, “You need to go to graduate school.”
And I did—that’s when I connected with the world of higher education. Now I’m an education support professional/academic advisor for Clackamas Community College where I advise students about their career paths—I get to transform people’s lives.
I remember when I started working at Clackamas. I was about two years into the profession, and I was going to quit. The job was rough. I thought I wasn’t cut for it. But there was a student whose name I didn’t know. I had seen him around campus a few times. You could tell he had some hard, personal struggles in his life.
He came to see me on day. He was struggling with the computer system. After that day, he kept coming to me, asking: “What’s next?” or “What should I do now?” For two years he came to see me.
By no means am I a counselor. If you want some tough love Enrique will give that to you. So I kept telling him, “be honest with yourself, be realistic, you can’t keep missing class, you have to be 100 percent every time you go to class.”
Within those two years, he cleaned up and graduated with a computer science degree. Two years later, he came back to me and said, “Hey, man. I’m going for this job interview.” A month later, he came back with “I got a job.”
It was one of those things where I wish I could have asked for his number or stayed in touch. But more importantly, it’s one of those things that’s just…awesome.
Education is one of those professions that can transform people’s lives for the better and in a way that’s going to last a lifetime—and not just in higher ed, but as early as PreK-12.
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