Jefferson Community Technical College – UofL News

Grad named Destini takes charge of her own

Janet Cappiello — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 14:00:37 +0000

Destini Potter always had an interest in a medical career.

After her 56-year-old mother died of a sudden heart attack when Potter was 18, she knew she wanted to be a cardiologist.��

True to her name, nothing was going to get in the way of that goal.

“There’s always a million reasons not to do something, but there’s always a million reasons to do something,” Potter said with a smile. “If you’re going through a tough time, you deserve to make a better life for yourself, no matter what. … Don’t give up.”

On Dec. 15, Potter will join hundreds of other summer and fall degree candidates at the KFC Yum! Center for exercises. Cheering her on from the stands as she celebrates her biology undergraduate degree will be her three brothers and two sisters.��

“I want to make my Mom proud because she always believed in me,” she said.

After her mother died, Potter’s father turned to drugs to cope. His addictions led her to sever her ties with him.��

Potter, 24, who lives with one of her sisters in Taylorsville and commutes to UofL, said she was determined to get her college degree “no matter what,” even though it meant she would have to�� put herself through school. To help lessen the financial burden, the first-generation student began her college career at Jefferson Community & Technical College (JCTC) in Carrollton after graduating from Trimble County High School in 2017. She transferred to UofL two years later, and she works part-time as a certified nursing assistant in Taylorsville.

“I don’t want other people to go through what I did, so I want to do the best that I can to help people protect their health so that other people won’t have their parents pass away when they are young,” Potter said.

Her close-knit siblings have been a strong support system for her. “We support each other and count on each other,” she said.��

Potter presenting her undergraduate research.

She also found a home at UofL, where she conducted field research on insects and developed lasting friendships, including finding fellow Dungeons & Dragons players. Among her favorite faculty members are Mark Running, professor of biology, Sachin Handa, associate professor of organic chemistry, and Steve Yanoviak, who gave her a research position in his entomology lab.��

She readily admits to having trouble focusing sometimes, and found favorite study areas on the quiet third floor of Ekstrom Library as well as in the Miller IT Center. She was not fond of the all-online class formats that were forced to replace in-person classes during the pandemic.

“I prefer an in-class setting,” she said. “When I’m in class I put my phone away and I try not to get distracted.”

But she said she had to learn to adapt because UofL’s many online class offerings have been particularly helpful with her busy schedule of working, studying and commuting.��

After graduation, she plans to take a gap year while she works and studies for her MCATs.��

Onward, toward her destiny.

Commencement exercises for UofL’s summer and fall 2023 candidates is Dec. 15, 7 p.m., at the KFC Yum! Center. For more information, visit the .

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Graduating at the speed of life

Janet Cappiello — Wed, 10 May 2023 14:58:00 +0000

For many, earning a college degree soon after graduating high school is the norm.��

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For others, it happens at the pace of life.

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That has been the case for at least two students who will walk across the stage at May Commencement 2023.��

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For Nancy Thompson, it took 50 years. For Erika J. Glenn, 32.

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Stops and starts on the road to earning her degree

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Nancy Thompson, 67, graduated from what was then Thomas Jefferson High School in 1973 (it is now a middle school).

She began attending UofL and also was working in the home mortgage industry, where no college degree was necessary for her to flourish. She took some classes on a whim: bowling, piano, philosophy.

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Then she stopped taking classes, married and had a child, while continuing to work in the home mortgage business, where she had started answering phones.��

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“College was something that I always wanted to finish,” said Thompson, a mortgage loan officer for Ruoff Mortgage in Louisville and mother of one. Fifty years later, she is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with a concentration in humanities from the College of Arts & Sciences.��

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“I had taken courses in real estate law, real estate appraisal, just because I was in that business, but my heart was always in philosophy,” she said. “Us humans do not come with an instruction manual. Philosophy is the closest thing I can come to how one should live one’s life.”

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Her path to her degree was filled with stops and starts. A flood destroyed her home. Her father became terminally ill. The Great Recession of 2008 caused a mortgage crisis.��

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Finally, she asked a UofL advisor to help her with a game plan. “I said, ‘I’m not getting any younger, what do I need to finish up to actually declare a degree and to graduate?” ��

She is, naturally, philosophical about it.��

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“Nevertheless, she persisted,” she said.��

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All-online program helps lead to success

Erika Glenn, 50, a permanent auxiliary teacher at Millcreek Elementary School in Louisville and mother of four, started her college career in 1990 at Eastern Kentucky University, also right out of high school. She transferred to Jefferson Community & Technical College (JCTC) two years later and endured a stillborn birth in 1993. Her father died three days later and her only sister a year after that.

Erika J. Glenn

Glenn persevered to earn an associates degree in 1994 and worked full-time in the JCTC admissions office.��

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In 1998, ready to start again, Glenn started taking classes at UofL. Again, life got in the way and Glenn took a break.��

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In 2017, she enrolled in the all-online Organizational Leadership and Development (OLL) bachelor’s program in the College of ��ֱ�� & Human Development. The program is specifically designed for busy adults with work experience or military training who are seeking a bachelor’s degree. Again, work-life balance came into play but by 2022, still not finished, she saw an opening to her future.

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That was when UofL introduced a new OLL track in diversity, inclusion, community engagement and equity (DICEE). Glenn sprinted, and on May 13 will earn a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, in OLL on the DICEE track. She hopes to become a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultant.

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“I feel this is the work that I was called to do and learning more and more about how this program benefits the entire community as a whole is incredible,” Glenn said, noting the program reflected her life’s experiences.��

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“I am a single divorced black female who has struggled financially to raise my children. I have worked full time since I was 21 but because I did not have a (bachelor’s degree) most jobs paid me less than what I deserved,” she said. “I can relate to the topics we have discussed in class. …�� I feel this is my moment to speak my truth and to educate others on the importance of DEI.”

Dual credits a key to this December graduate’s degree

Janet Cappiello — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 16:18:01 +0000

Alexa Grace Brunson arrived at the University of Louisville in the fall of 2021, a graduate of the prestigious��on the Morehead State University campus, where high school juniors and seniors live in a dormitory and take college classes.��

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Fueled by those credits, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in sociology by August, and she will walk across the UofL commencement stage at the KFC Yum! Center on Dec. 16.��

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Her secret sauce?��

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“Both of my parents are really, truly into education and reading and knowledge,” said Brunson, 19, who is back at MSU working on her master’s degree in sociology. Her mother is a bookmobile librarian and her father works in IT at MSU. Her two older sisters are college graduates, one also with a master’s degree.

Alexa Grace Brunson

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Brunson’s next step will be pharmacy school, and she’s already been accepted to her first choice.

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At Craft, Brunson devoured class after class, taking as many as she could year-round, and arrived at UofL in her first year with enough credits to be in her senior year.

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Even at UofL, she took classes year-round and added a couple Jefferson Community Technical College (JCTC) classes to help her complete her degree requirements. She said her friends and senior lecturer Jonetta Weber, director of academic services for the sociology department and adjunct faculty member in sociology and sport administration, were great supporters when she got discouraged.

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“I loved the UofL campus. Even though it’s a very large school and it has a larger student body than Morehead State, I really felt at home there, genuinely,” she said. “And I loved my professors. I loved every organization I was in. And then the city itself — there’s so much to do. You can’t even get bored there because there’s always something either on campus, off campus. I just love the environment.”

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Brunson is a graduate assistant at MSU and also works as a resident assistant at her alma mater. Accompanied by her dog, Nina, and cat, Mango, she serves as a role model who helps the academically gifted Craft students navigate their unique post-secondary experience.

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For some people, these achievements might be enough. For Brunson, who said she’d like to return to Louisville when she starts her pharmacy career, they are only the beginning.

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“I’m proud of myself,” she said, “but I still feel like there’s so much more I can do as a person to benefit other people.”