During my first few weeks as Director of Paralegal Studies at Beckfield College, I was called to a meeting in the President’s office. Other than me, the meeting was also attended by the President, the Academic Dean, a few staff members, and a student. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the concerns of the student who was in the paralegal program. I expected fire, brimstone, yelling and screaming from the student. I was not completely aware beforehand just what her concerns actually were and I was hoping that it would not get too confrontational. Not too long into the meeting, I found out that it was not going to be confrontational. This student, I’ll call her Hannah, was concerned about her education.
As she began to talk about her issues, she became genuinely upset and started crying. She was not upset because her GPA was too low. She was genuinely upset because she had received an “A” in most of her classes. Hannah felt that did she did not earn many of these grades. She also didn’t feel that she had learned enough in some of her courses. Hannah was aware of what hard work and satisfactory completion of something felt like, and she believed that much of her school work was not something that deserved reward. We prompted Hannah to talk about her reasons for her disappointment.
Hannah had five children. She lived in Elsmere, KY about five miles from Beckfield. Whenever Hannah needed to be in class, or on a computer, she walked to Beckfield from her home. Yes, she walked. Hannah needed to leave the family car at home in case her husband had to take the children somewhere. She didn’t have a phone, so she had to go to a neighbor’s house to call if she was going to be late or wanted to talk to someone at the school. Hannah took night classes because her husband worked during the day. Evening classes end at about ten o’clock in the evening. After class, Hannah would walk to work a few blocks from Beckfield, in the dark. She would then work an evening shift from eleven at night till five in the morning. At five A.M., Hannah would then walk the five miles home to Elsmere. She would get home at about a quarter to six. She would take a nap until seven, then wake up, get the school-aged kids ready for school, and send them off to school and her husband off to work. This still left two small children behind which she cared for all day while her husband worked. The kids and the husband came home about four in the afternoon, so Hannah got a chance for another nap. At five o’clock, she got up and got herself ready to walk to Beckfield for more classes, library, or computer work. Her dedication was unbelievable.
Hannah was complaining because she worked hard on her courses, and she could not understand how some folks would complain about assignments, homework, or juggling life and school work. While many students whined about too much work, Hannah was angry about not having enough work to do. She knew that, oftentimes, there was more to the subject matter than was being taught and more projects and activities which could have helped everyone learn the material better. She was angry with a good GPA that she felt she didn’t deserve, and she was also very upset.
Hannah’s dedication, commitment and emotions, inspired me. I offered to help her in any way that I could. We worked out a scheduled where, in additional to her current course load, she would come in and work independently with me on courses that she had already taken, but did not feel like she gained anything from. She walked to Beckfield to study with me on those days as well. I have never seen anyone work so hard to get something that they knew they should have. It has been my ambition and my challenge ever since that meeting with Hannah to make sure that no student at Beckfield would ever feel like that again. It has been my aim to ensure that all students are challenged in class, work to earn each grade they receive, and are made to feel that they got something for their time and effort.
While I am very proud of each student at graduation, I was especially proud of Hannah when she received her diploma. I was proud because I knew that she had earned it, and that Hannah also believed that she had earned it as well. She is now a working paralegal and is doing quite well.
Originally Published in the Beckfield College Newsletter, Winter 2008.
Jerry Linger, Dean of Legal Studies