Barrier busters | Mother and son share path to success
Bursting with pride, Jason Ingles’ mother managed to control her emotions throughout her son’s high school commencement three years ago. The composure shattered as they embraced afterward.
“Just think, Mom,” Jason whispered. “We’re going to college together.”
“I hadn’t shed a tear at that point,” Elaine Murphy recalled,“but that’s when I started to cry.”
Murphy had been on a college campus once in her life before enrolling at Mountain Empire Community College (MECC) in Big Stone Gap, Va. That was in the mid-1980s when, pregnant with Jason, she walked across a stage at a Baltimore-area community college to receive her high school diploma. (Jason likes to tease his mother that he graduated from high school twice.)
Following graduation, Murphy married, got technical training as a dental assistant, gave birth to two more children, moved to southwestern Virginia and then divorced. It was then, shortly after the turn of the new century, that she decided to alter her life.
“Just think, Mom,” Jason whispered. “We’re going to college together.”
“I hadn’t shed a tear at that point,” Elaine Murphy recalled,“but that’s when I started to cry.”
Murphy had been on a college campus once in her life before enrolling at Mountain Empire Community College (MECC) in Big Stone Gap, Va. That was in the mid-1980s when, pregnant with Jason, she walked across a stage at a Baltimore-area community college to receive her high school diploma. (Jason likes to tease his mother that he graduated from high school twice.)
Following graduation, Murphy married, got technical training as a dental assistant, gave birth to two more children, moved to southwestern Virginia and then divorced. It was then, shortly after the turn of the new century, that she decided to alter her life.
 | Jason Ingles and his mother, Elaine Murphy, both attend Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, Va., and both plan to move on to four-year institutions. |
“I knew it was time to change the road I was traveling, and I knew that the only way I could do it would be to go back to school,” Murphy said.“To get anywhere you need to get up and start moving.You just can’t sit there.”
So Murphy got up. She quit her full-time job at a dentist’s office, signed up to be a substitute teacher (certain districts in Virginia require only a high school diploma), and began classes at MECC. Her ultimate goal: a bachelor’s degree and a job as a high school math teacher.
The only one of seven siblings to complete high school, Murphy was always drawn to education. When her children were toddlers, she couldn’t wait for them to start school; and when they did, Murphy was an enthusiastic classroom volunteer. Even so, it was intimidating for her to return to school as a mother of three in her mid-30s.“I had it in my mind that everybody here would be 19 or 20 years old, and I would be the oldest person in the class,” Murphy recalled. Sometimes that was the case. Arriving late on the first night of a pre-calculus class, Murphy entered and the room fell silent. Embarrassed, she quickly assured her classmates that she wasn’t the tardy teacher.
Unlike the home in which she was raised, Murphy made education a top priority for her children –- so much so that Jason attended seven straight years without an absence. As his senior year approached, Jason -– who had developed an affinity for computer science –- was bombarded with advice from well-meaning acquaintances pushing him toward the University of Virginia, Radford University, the College of William and Mary and other four year schools. No one mentioned the institution that was educating Jason’s mother.
“There’s this mentality that when you say ‘MECC’ people will look down their noses at it,” he said.“But unless they attend a community college, they just don’t see the importance it has.”
Bright, affable and self-assured, Jason had no qualms acknowledging his strengths and weaknesses as a student educated in a rural district 40 miles from Big Stone Gap.“If I’d gone to (a four-year college), I would have had a lot of catching up to do,” he admitted. Also, MECC offered the opportunity for a low cost education while allowing him to stay closer to home and family.
Jason, a student leader and peer mentor, shares his mother’s intention to transfer to a four-year school after earning his MECC degree. According to figures from the National Articulation and Transfer Network (NATN), 71 percent of community college students enter higher education with transfer as their stated goal; but less than 25 percent actually follow through. In many cases, these low rates of success can be traced,at least in part,to four-year institutions’ reluctance to accept transfer credits, said Philip R.Day Jr., chancellor of City College of San Francisco and the president of NATN, which is working to improve intrastate articulation and transfer agreements nationwide.
One focal point of progress is in Virginia, where a statewide articulation agreement went into effect last year, and where outgoing Gov. Mark Warner has established a reputation as a strong supporter of “early college high schools,” in which students can earn college credit while working on their high school graduation requirements. New transfer policies also are being considered in several other states, in part to accommodate the increasing numbers of students who view community college as the first step in a four-year program rather than a two-year ticket to the workforce.
“I can understand why we have a problem here because the (two-years) weren’t designed to do what they do now,” said Monica Osei, an associate for academic affairs with Virginia’s State Council of Higher Education.“If you had designed a system from the beginning that would have served as a feeder for the four-years, then it would have been different.… The four-years could have said: ‘Your English classes need to look like this; your math courses need to look like this, and your science classes need to look like this.’ So what would have happened is the four-years would have helped set curriculum, and they all would have been on the same page from the beginning. But that’s not what happened.”
Still, Elaine Murphy doesn’t let the apparent inefficiencies of the system get to her. Even though she had to return to MECC after receiving her associate’s degree to pick up a few extra classes she needed to transfer to the University of Virginia’s Wise County campus, Murphy is patient and philosophical:
“The best thing is that it sends a message to my kids: “If Mom can do it, then I can,” she said.
So Murphy got up. She quit her full-time job at a dentist’s office, signed up to be a substitute teacher (certain districts in Virginia require only a high school diploma), and began classes at MECC. Her ultimate goal: a bachelor’s degree and a job as a high school math teacher.
The only one of seven siblings to complete high school, Murphy was always drawn to education. When her children were toddlers, she couldn’t wait for them to start school; and when they did, Murphy was an enthusiastic classroom volunteer. Even so, it was intimidating for her to return to school as a mother of three in her mid-30s.“I had it in my mind that everybody here would be 19 or 20 years old, and I would be the oldest person in the class,” Murphy recalled. Sometimes that was the case. Arriving late on the first night of a pre-calculus class, Murphy entered and the room fell silent. Embarrassed, she quickly assured her classmates that she wasn’t the tardy teacher.
Unlike the home in which she was raised, Murphy made education a top priority for her children –- so much so that Jason attended seven straight years without an absence. As his senior year approached, Jason -– who had developed an affinity for computer science –- was bombarded with advice from well-meaning acquaintances pushing him toward the University of Virginia, Radford University, the College of William and Mary and other four year schools. No one mentioned the institution that was educating Jason’s mother.
“There’s this mentality that when you say ‘MECC’ people will look down their noses at it,” he said.“But unless they attend a community college, they just don’t see the importance it has.”
Bright, affable and self-assured, Jason had no qualms acknowledging his strengths and weaknesses as a student educated in a rural district 40 miles from Big Stone Gap.“If I’d gone to (a four-year college), I would have had a lot of catching up to do,” he admitted. Also, MECC offered the opportunity for a low cost education while allowing him to stay closer to home and family.
Jason, a student leader and peer mentor, shares his mother’s intention to transfer to a four-year school after earning his MECC degree. According to figures from the National Articulation and Transfer Network (NATN), 71 percent of community college students enter higher education with transfer as their stated goal; but less than 25 percent actually follow through. In many cases, these low rates of success can be traced,at least in part,to four-year institutions’ reluctance to accept transfer credits, said Philip R.Day Jr., chancellor of City College of San Francisco and the president of NATN, which is working to improve intrastate articulation and transfer agreements nationwide.
One focal point of progress is in Virginia, where a statewide articulation agreement went into effect last year, and where outgoing Gov. Mark Warner has established a reputation as a strong supporter of “early college high schools,” in which students can earn college credit while working on their high school graduation requirements. New transfer policies also are being considered in several other states, in part to accommodate the increasing numbers of students who view community college as the first step in a four-year program rather than a two-year ticket to the workforce.
“I can understand why we have a problem here because the (two-years) weren’t designed to do what they do now,” said Monica Osei, an associate for academic affairs with Virginia’s State Council of Higher Education.“If you had designed a system from the beginning that would have served as a feeder for the four-years, then it would have been different.… The four-years could have said: ‘Your English classes need to look like this; your math courses need to look like this, and your science classes need to look like this.’ So what would have happened is the four-years would have helped set curriculum, and they all would have been on the same page from the beginning. But that’s not what happened.”
Still, Elaine Murphy doesn’t let the apparent inefficiencies of the system get to her. Even though she had to return to MECC after receiving her associate’s degree to pick up a few extra classes she needed to transfer to the University of Virginia’s Wise County campus, Murphy is patient and philosophical:
“The best thing is that it sends a message to my kids: “If Mom can do it, then I can,” she said.
