Happy Nontraditional Student Week! There are many attributes to those defined as nontraditional students — from working status, to children, ethnicity, and age. I will be featuring a different nontraditional student every day this week — students who work hard to achieve their goals despite the factors that work against their success! I hope you find them as encouraging and inspirational as I do! If you are a nontraditional student, please share your story with me!
Name: Arianna Brown-Harris
I am nontraditional because: I am a single mother, divorced and didn’t go to college until 4 years after graduating high school.
College: Spokane Community College-Graduated
Eastern Washington University-Graduate 6/2016
Major: Finance
Share a bit of your story: your struggles, your proud moments, etc.:
I graduated from high school a year early and with honors. Everyone had high hopes for me and my future, but in all honesty I was still “finding myself.” I moved out on my own at 17, worked full-time and spent time trying to figure out what I wanted out of life. Soon after, I had a child and got married. I focused on the wrong things, got caught up in the fast-paced lifestyle in Los Angeles and made no future plans. In less than a year, my husband and I split up and I had made a move to Spokane, WA. This experience woke me up to reality, and I realized that if I wanted a bright future for my son, I would have to be the one to go and get it. I enrolled in college and to my surprise I am excelling. I have been the President of my honor society and am currently in the honors program at my university with a 4.0 gpa average. I have attained all this while maintaining consistent employment and raising my son alone. I am excited for the future and for all that I have achieved.
Advice to other nontraditional students:
Stay strong and persevere! It may be harder for us, but knowing how hard we worked is what keeps us going =]
Favorite inspiring quote:
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”-Vince Lombardi
Thank you so much Arianna for sharing your story! You are doing amazing things despite the odds set against you! If you are a student parent, please share your story with me!
Check out the previous Nontraditional Student Week Stories Here:
You can also check out the blog I wrote for Pearson’s Teaching and Learning blog titled, “I am the New Normal”
College Success for Moms 