College education opens doors
Sierra McCaffrey
|
Osvaldo Garcia
|
Sonia Canales
|
July 28, 2021
Ezra DeVore & Sheila Harris
College is widely seen as a key to higher rungs on the income ladder, with local college options making that ladder easier to climb in their quest to uplift local citizens.
After high school, Sierra McCaffrey, of Monett, began attending OTC in Springfield for a degree in Psychology, but decided she would rather be involved in business. She graduated from OTC in 2009 with an Associates in Business Marketing, a degree analyzing business in the real world.
After completing her Associates, she began a career at Jack Henry, but felt a need to pursue further education. Because she lived in Monett and didn’t want to drive to Springfield to OTC while working a full-time job, McCaffrey enrolled in Drury and graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Organizational Communication and Development.
“Jack Henry empowers employees,” McCaffrey said. “They’re very much in support of self-education; they want employees to grow and learn. And Drury wants their students to pass.”
McCaffrey spoke highly of Drury’s helpful and positive staff. She also advocated allowing yourself to go at your own pace.
“A lot of people try to be perfect right after high school,” McCaffrey said, “but you need to go at the pace you were meant to go at.”
Some students choose to keep tight connections with a college they’ve graduated from, as Osvaldo Garcia, of Purdy, did. After graduating from Drury in December 2020 with a Bachelors in Leadership, he still works for the university three nights a week as a night monitor, advisor, and tutor during the Spring and Fall semesters.
Before attending Drury, Garcia enrolled in Crowder College directly after graduating from Purdy High School in 2016 and began classes that fall. He graduated from Crowder in 2019 with an Associates in Business Administration. Garcia transferred to Drury thereafter with a strong focus on accounting. He swiftly saw, however, that accounting wasn’t for him. While taking a leadership class, his destination became solidified in his mind. Garcia now works for the Human Resources department at EFCO.
Garcia appreciates Drury’s encouragement of sociability.
“I really feel they help you, even outside of school,” he said. “They offered me the monitor position, and helped me become more involved. At other schools I’ve been to, I made fewer friends.”
Not all students follow an academic path so closely after high school, especially if they were born far from where they’re currently at.
Sonia Canales, of Cassville, immigrated to the Untied States in 2003 - at age 15 - from Zacatecas, Mexico. She spoke only Spanish.
In adulthood, after years spent working at George’s and IDF, Canales began to hear from her friends how supportive the staff at Drury was.
“I thought about all of the people in this area who can’t speak English, and I thought, ‘This is somewhere that I can make a change,’” she said. “I wanna fight for people.”
She expressed her desire to obtain her Bachelor’s Degree, and, in 2019, Canales began her pursuit of two of them: one in Leadership, the other in Human Resources.
“Before I started at Drury, I doubted myself a lot,” she said. “I thought I was going to be doomed to work on a production floor - that I wasn’t able to do more. But when I started Drury, it gave me a lot of confidence. When I felt stuck and wanted to give up, the teachers and staff wouldn’t let me. They encourage me and provided tools to keep going.”
Sonia said her college attendance inspired her siblings to go to college as well.
“My brother Edgar saw that I was making it, even with kids, a house, and work, and said, ‘If you can do it, I can do it,’ and he enrolled. Then, my sister followed along, then my younger brother; so now it’s four of us going to college, because I started,” she said.
Canales works twelve hour shifts at IDF in Monett, but her day is much longer. She wakes up at 4:20 a.m. each morning and works until 6:15 p.m., makes it to her classes at 7:10 p.m., then arrives home around 10 p.m. to do it all again the next day.
“On days I have class, I don’t see my kids,” Canales said.
Her hope to obtain a degree, though, is impervious to her rigorous schedule.
“I want to change the work environment I’ve been in my whole life,” she said. “I want to be able to dress nicely and get off work in time for parent-teacher conferences for my kids. I want to make a difference in people’s lives, not work a production line and just see people struggle.”
Sonia Canales will graduate from Drury in December of 2022.
Not all students end their academic career in early life, however. A particularly inspiring tale is that of Yvonne Kerr. Kerr is 74 years old and is taking two summer classes at Crowder College in Cassville. A self-proclaimed “nontraditional student,” rightly so, Kerr earned a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education from Bolivar’s Southwest Baptist University in 1970 and a Master’s from Missouri State University in Springfield in 1979. With these degrees, Kerr taught elementary school for thirty years and retired in 2000.
“I am a life-long learner,” Kerr said, “and even taught myself to speak Spanish. However, I wanted to experience college in 2021, personally. The campus in Cassville helped me get enrolled, and I even had the opportunity to sit in a math class. Very different from my last college algebra class in 1965. Every person I encountered on both [Crowder] campuses demonstrated an attitude of caring and wanting to help in any way needed.”
Whether you’re thinking of plunging into the pursuit of a degree, or just taking a few classes to further your education, both Crowder College and Drury Universtiy offer options which work well with busy schedules - because they’re close to home.
Enrollment can be initiated on their websites (Crowder or Drury), or by going to the campus itself for enrollment information. Fall classes begin in August.
Ezra DeVore & Sheila Harris
College is widely seen as a key to higher rungs on the income ladder, with local college options making that ladder easier to climb in their quest to uplift local citizens.
After high school, Sierra McCaffrey, of Monett, began attending OTC in Springfield for a degree in Psychology, but decided she would rather be involved in business. She graduated from OTC in 2009 with an Associates in Business Marketing, a degree analyzing business in the real world.
After completing her Associates, she began a career at Jack Henry, but felt a need to pursue further education. Because she lived in Monett and didn’t want to drive to Springfield to OTC while working a full-time job, McCaffrey enrolled in Drury and graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Organizational Communication and Development.
“Jack Henry empowers employees,” McCaffrey said. “They’re very much in support of self-education; they want employees to grow and learn. And Drury wants their students to pass.”
McCaffrey spoke highly of Drury’s helpful and positive staff. She also advocated allowing yourself to go at your own pace.
“A lot of people try to be perfect right after high school,” McCaffrey said, “but you need to go at the pace you were meant to go at.”
Some students choose to keep tight connections with a college they’ve graduated from, as Osvaldo Garcia, of Purdy, did. After graduating from Drury in December 2020 with a Bachelors in Leadership, he still works for the university three nights a week as a night monitor, advisor, and tutor during the Spring and Fall semesters.
Before attending Drury, Garcia enrolled in Crowder College directly after graduating from Purdy High School in 2016 and began classes that fall. He graduated from Crowder in 2019 with an Associates in Business Administration. Garcia transferred to Drury thereafter with a strong focus on accounting. He swiftly saw, however, that accounting wasn’t for him. While taking a leadership class, his destination became solidified in his mind. Garcia now works for the Human Resources department at EFCO.
Garcia appreciates Drury’s encouragement of sociability.
“I really feel they help you, even outside of school,” he said. “They offered me the monitor position, and helped me become more involved. At other schools I’ve been to, I made fewer friends.”
Not all students follow an academic path so closely after high school, especially if they were born far from where they’re currently at.
Sonia Canales, of Cassville, immigrated to the Untied States in 2003 - at age 15 - from Zacatecas, Mexico. She spoke only Spanish.
In adulthood, after years spent working at George’s and IDF, Canales began to hear from her friends how supportive the staff at Drury was.
“I thought about all of the people in this area who can’t speak English, and I thought, ‘This is somewhere that I can make a change,’” she said. “I wanna fight for people.”
She expressed her desire to obtain her Bachelor’s Degree, and, in 2019, Canales began her pursuit of two of them: one in Leadership, the other in Human Resources.
“Before I started at Drury, I doubted myself a lot,” she said. “I thought I was going to be doomed to work on a production floor - that I wasn’t able to do more. But when I started Drury, it gave me a lot of confidence. When I felt stuck and wanted to give up, the teachers and staff wouldn’t let me. They encourage me and provided tools to keep going.”
Sonia said her college attendance inspired her siblings to go to college as well.
“My brother Edgar saw that I was making it, even with kids, a house, and work, and said, ‘If you can do it, I can do it,’ and he enrolled. Then, my sister followed along, then my younger brother; so now it’s four of us going to college, because I started,” she said.
Canales works twelve hour shifts at IDF in Monett, but her day is much longer. She wakes up at 4:20 a.m. each morning and works until 6:15 p.m., makes it to her classes at 7:10 p.m., then arrives home around 10 p.m. to do it all again the next day.
“On days I have class, I don’t see my kids,” Canales said.
Her hope to obtain a degree, though, is impervious to her rigorous schedule.
“I want to change the work environment I’ve been in my whole life,” she said. “I want to be able to dress nicely and get off work in time for parent-teacher conferences for my kids. I want to make a difference in people’s lives, not work a production line and just see people struggle.”
Sonia Canales will graduate from Drury in December of 2022.
Not all students end their academic career in early life, however. A particularly inspiring tale is that of Yvonne Kerr. Kerr is 74 years old and is taking two summer classes at Crowder College in Cassville. A self-proclaimed “nontraditional student,” rightly so, Kerr earned a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education from Bolivar’s Southwest Baptist University in 1970 and a Master’s from Missouri State University in Springfield in 1979. With these degrees, Kerr taught elementary school for thirty years and retired in 2000.
“I am a life-long learner,” Kerr said, “and even taught myself to speak Spanish. However, I wanted to experience college in 2021, personally. The campus in Cassville helped me get enrolled, and I even had the opportunity to sit in a math class. Very different from my last college algebra class in 1965. Every person I encountered on both [Crowder] campuses demonstrated an attitude of caring and wanting to help in any way needed.”
Whether you’re thinking of plunging into the pursuit of a degree, or just taking a few classes to further your education, both Crowder College and Drury Universtiy offer options which work well with busy schedules - because they’re close to home.
Enrollment can be initiated on their websites (Crowder or Drury), or by going to the campus itself for enrollment information. Fall classes begin in August.
