I just had a very satisfying moment on the job and it really had nothing to do with actually helping a student.
I was randomly sitting at the front desk while Kay was away and I happened to answer a phone call from a student who was in my Creative Writing class here at Heartland in Spring 2004. She's returning again as a student here and had a question about her transcripts from other colleges. When we were in that class together, man, she thought she was the shit. She was going to school at Columbia and was going to transfer to UIC and you could just tell that she thought Heartland students were worthless (even though... uhh... she was taking a class here). Creative Writing is the only course she took here and her grades were horrible from both UIC and Columbia during multiple semesters. And now she's returning to finish her Associate's... 8 years later.
It was just a moment for me that made me have all the more pride in being an alum of this institution. People often look down on community colleges, but I am way more successful than and years ahead of that girl who, back then, clearly thought she was better than Heartland Community College. Sure, she was smart enough to get a good score on her ACT and be admitted to good colleges right out high school, but honestly, that means nothing unless you apply yourself and actually meet your goals.
I always felt really horrible about how badly I did on my ACT; I got like a 21, I think, which is just barely good enough to go into a college-level writing course and not good enough at all to go into a college-level math course. I didn't get into Illinois State and it really hurt my pride. I know now that going here was the best thing for me, anyway, and I honestly feel so lucky to work here.
I was randomly sitting at the front desk while Kay was away and I happened to answer a phone call from a student who was in my Creative Writing class here at Heartland in Spring 2004. She's returning again as a student here and had a question about her transcripts from other colleges. When we were in that class together, man, she thought she was the shit. She was going to school at Columbia and was going to transfer to UIC and you could just tell that she thought Heartland students were worthless (even though... uhh... she was taking a class here). Creative Writing is the only course she took here and her grades were horrible from both UIC and Columbia during multiple semesters. And now she's returning to finish her Associate's... 8 years later.
It was just a moment for me that made me have all the more pride in being an alum of this institution. People often look down on community colleges, but I am way more successful than and years ahead of that girl who, back then, clearly thought she was better than Heartland Community College. Sure, she was smart enough to get a good score on her ACT and be admitted to good colleges right out high school, but honestly, that means nothing unless you apply yourself and actually meet your goals.
I always felt really horrible about how badly I did on my ACT; I got like a 21, I think, which is just barely good enough to go into a college-level writing course and not good enough at all to go into a college-level math course. I didn't get into Illinois State and it really hurt my pride. I know now that going here was the best thing for me, anyway, and I honestly feel so lucky to work here.
Go Heartland!
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