About Thaimae Le & “Community College Leadership”
Looking back on May 25th, 2006 — I had no intention of pursuing higher education as I walked across the stage and accepted my high school diploma. I completed public K-12 education with a high school grade point average of 2.33. I felt I was an average person of average smarts capable of only average feats because I was never told anything else.
College? That was for ambitious and intelligent people who knew where they wanted to go in life and what they wanted to do.
Eight years later I found myself working a dead-end job managing stores for a now defunct electronics retailer. I had been doing the same thing for the last seven years for a company whose stock prices were treading water at a whopping two dollars per share. With little to lose, I left the old ‘shack and signed up at my local community college. After taking the good ol’ Accuplacer I learned that I was below my self-perceived average in mathematics testing into two course levels below entry-level college math. However, I placed into Honors English 101.
Pursuing the “honors” part of the course was optional, but I figured “what the heck? Why not?”
Fast-forward to current day. As a first-generation American citizen and college student, I have completed an Associate’s in English Literature, a Bachelor’s in Anthropology and another in English, and am currently in my final semester of completing two master’s programs (Educational Leadership and Professional Writing) and am a partner in a local startup. I made it this far with the assistance of two separate full-ride scholarships that was first earned at the end of my community college (student) journey.
Somewhere between taking the Accuplacer and becoming the first person in my family to earn a college degree, I stopped believing that I was average. Now, this story is not unique to me. I am not the only person to turn their life around and achieve academic success. In fact, I am one of the many successful products of community colleges.
This blog is meant to explore the different dimensions of United States public education at all levels as they are all connected but will maintain an emphasis on community college and its opportunities. My posts are my own personal opinions formulated through research and experience. I invite you to engage in dialogue with me and to challenge my opinions so that we may continue to participate in the social experience that is learning.
