A sampling of new-graduate profiles . . .

From TCC to kindergarten

With her goals in sight at the age of 21, Crystal Bialas graduated Dec. 18 with her associate degree in early childhood development. She plans to pursue a second degree, this one in social sciences, before she transfers to Old Dominion University for a bachelor’s and master’s in education. Her end goal: “I want to be a kindergarten teacher and instill a love of learning in my students.” 

Bialas’ life story has been about overcoming odds. A cancer survivor, she has spent much of her young life fighting to survive. She has battled brain cancer since she was 3 years old. Surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy have all been part of her growing-up years, with loss of peripheral vision due to a stroke during a surgery. She now has a kind of tunnel vision, and can only read two words at a time. “I’ve had to relearn how to read by physically moving my head to see the words,” she explains. Bialas has also had some memory loss, making learning a bit more challenging for her than others. 

Graduating in the top of her class from Tallwood High School, Bialas chose TCC with a campus close to home. “I needed the support of family, and wanted to stay near my doctors,” Bialas adds.  

Bialas works part time at KinderCare Learning Center. She also volunteers with children at her local YMCA. “Children are my passion, and I enjoy watching them learn,” she adds. “From a young age, I knew that teaching was my destiny.” 

Bialas’s sister, a University of Virginia graduate, also enjoys teaching and teaches high school math in South Carolina. “It’s a family thing, this passion for teaching. It’s been what has kept me going through some difficult times.”

Fashion forward . . . from TCC to FIT in NYC

Fashion has always been her thing. With pen and pad in hand, Jennifer Morgan has spent countless hours drawing dresses and other clothing items. When she started seeing her ideas pop up on runways in New York, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer in the Big Apple. “I’ve always loved clothes. Even when I was young, I remember taking my time deciding about what to wear. Now, drawing beautiful things is a way of expressing myself.”

Morgan put her dream of a fashion career on hold for a tour of duty with the Air Force. When her service time ended, she returned to Hampton Roads and enrolled at TCC. “I was a single mom by then and I knew that I had to get my education for the sake of my son,” she recalls.

While at TCC, Morgan served as secretary of the Student Government Association and was a volunteer organizer of a charity fashion show for the STOP organization, as well as helped collect prom dresses for Booker T. High School teens. She also launched her own fashion blog site.

Nominated as Student Speaker for her class, Morgan graduated Dec. 18 with her associate degree in social sciences. She will continue at TCC to complete a certificate in personal training, for work that will help fund her fashion design education.

In the process of applying to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Morgan plans to move there in the summer or 2010. “I have everything done, except my sample dress. That’s my next project.”

From MTV to engineering – a local ‘star’ is born

From rock music to engineering, from becoming homeless to graduating from college, TCC’s Dec. 18 Commencement Student Speaker found her path and beat incredible odds.

Jennifer Otis planned a normal route to college, starting at Virginia Commonwealth University studying music performance in the mid-90s. But a car accident broke her back, stalled her schooling and prompted a “change of heart about the whole thing,” Otis recalls.

She moved to California to become a lead singer in a rock band, and enjoyed some success, even appearing on MTV. “I loved what I was doing. Then I realized that to be truly successful, I’d have to be on the road most of the year. I had a daughter by then, and I just couldn’t leave her to pursue this dream,” explains Otis.

And then the bottom fell out of her life. She became homeless when her daughter’s father spent their rent money on drugs and they were evicted from their home. “I ended up living out of my car, and staying with friends here and there.” Another blow landed when her car was vandalized. “They took our vital documents, our clothes, everything.”

“I decided that I needed the support of my family, so I came home to Virginia Beach to live with my mom.” Enrolled in the welfare-to-work program, Otis soon had a job and some stability. “I first went to work for a temporary agency, and then I did some waitressing,” she adds. “It didn’t take me long to see that I needed an education to provide a better life for my daughter . . . So I enrolled with TCC to study engineering and go after a new dream.”

Otis participated in TCC’s STEM Pioneer program and held leadership roles in the Engineering Club. “I had a great support network. From study groups to mentoring, the TCC family was there for me.”

Otis landed an engineering technician position with the City of Virginia Beach, and now she’s learning in the classroom and on the job. She earned her associate degree in engineering and will pursue a bachelor’s in civil engineering at Old Dominion University. “My personal philosophy is that I’m responsible to help others, to pay back some of what I’ve received. My work in this field enables me to maintain a quality standard of living and help my community. That’s my passion now.”

Near-death experience propels grad to career in nursing

When Shawana “Shae” Troche first started at TCC she couldn’t talk and could barely walk. A stroke survivor, Troche was determined to make something of her life, after almost losing it.

“I was 29 when I had a stroke. I remember collapsing on the floor in my family room near my nine-month-old daughter. Then it went quiet and I saw a bright light and I felt disconnected from myself. It was like I was looking down at the scene, but not really part of it,” explains Troche. “I prayed earnestly then, asking God to spare my life, to allow me to be there for my children. I promised God that I’d do whatever it takes to help others, to pursue nursing. Moments later, it was like a cotton shirt falling back to the ground and I was reconnected to myself and then I heard noises, felt pain, felt the medics working on me.”

New TCC nursing grad Shawana “Shae” Troche gets a check-up from daughter Jada.

It has been a long road to complete recovery. Troche has had to learn to speak, walk, eat. “It’s been a humbling experience, but I was determined to make something out of my life, to do something exceptional with the gift I was given.”

A mother of three, and married for 11 years, Troche has beaten incredible odds to earn her nursing pin on Dec. 17. Since enrolling at TCC in 2005, she has not missed a single class, even on days when she was struggling with the after effects and treatment for stroke recovery.

Nominated as Student Speaker, Troche graduated Dec. 18 with an associate in nursing and plans to pursue a bachelor’s in nursing at Old Dominion University. The recipient of two awards in 2007, Troche earned the Altrusa International Inc. Scholarship and the Calvary Revival Alliance scholarship.

“I received so much support from the people at TCC,” adds Troche, who is the first in her family to earn a college degree. “I had two professors, Ms. Pennington and Mrs. Gwebu, who went out of their way to answer questions and help me through it all.”

Troche works as an emergency room technician at Chesapeake General Hospital, and will take her state nursing board exams this month. She hopes to move into a registered nursing position in her emergency department. “I absolutely love what I’m doing. It’s my passion. I love never knowing what’s coming through the doors, and the diversity of the care we give. I love helping people, providing the kind of care that I received when I really needed it.”

Unique program draws students from diverse backgrounds

Two things most people can count on, to paraphrase the famous truism, are death and taxes. TCC’s Funeral Service program attracts students interested in making life better, and less “taxing,” for the bereaved. New graduates Edward (Eddie) Cowell and Sheila Riendeau exemplify that mission, while coming at it from vastly different life experiences.

Cowell, a former Marine master sergeant, enthusiastically came to TCC’s program to change careers after 20 years in service. Part of his duties as a casualty officer was the daunting task of notifying family members of their troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. That work reinforced his long-held interest in running a funeral home – a desire to bring some measure of peace to the bereaved. “This is so important to me, to be able to make the family’s pain a little bit less; this work has been a dream of mine for many, many years,” says Cowell.

In an industry in need of licensed operators, Cowell lined up a job with a funeral home before he even graduated, and ultimately plans to own and run his own.

Another new graduate, Sheila Riendeau, a Norfolk native and mother of seven, ages 12-24, remembers as a child her grandmother’s funeral. How terrible she looked in the casket, but how beautiful another woman looked in a nearby parlor. “I just thought that wasn’t right, that people have a right to look as best they can for their loved ones.”

Riendeau, who has devoted much of her life to raising her family while her husband served in the Navy, began to pursue her dream as her kids became more independent, and started seeking classes for funeral work. She finally saw TCC’s program launching three years ago and plunged in, earning high grades throughout.

Now her expertise has become clear: she particularly enjoys the cosmetology aspect of

preparing the deceased in their best light for the benefit of their loved ones. “I’m just so very glad to be going into this work I’ve always wanted to do for people,” she says.

Future counselor and nurse graduate TCC

Matthew Breining took advantage of a special program in high school that bridged to an associate degree in social sciences from TCC, received at the Dec. 18 graduation. Not only did the Portsmouth family celebrate his success, they had double the excitement – his sister, Jessica McHugh, also earned her degree, fulfilling a long-held dream to become a nurse.

Breining is an example of success with TCC’s First College program for teens in Portsmouth City Schools. Realizing in his junior year that he hadn’t applied anywhere for college, he looked around and spotted the new First College program aimed at teens who want to get a leg-up on college while in high school. After meeting pre-reqs and passing assessment tests, he earned almost a year of college credits before graduating from Wilson High, and decided to come to TCC. Now he’s transferring in January to Roanoke College to study history and literature, then go for a master’s to become a

guidance counselor.

Very active at TCC, Breining served as a student tutor and welcome-desk staff – “I love to help people learn,” he says, noting his TCC activities made that clear to him.

His sister, a mother of two, had long wanted to be a nurse, beginning to learn about emergency medical technician skills at age 14, wanting to follow in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother. “I finally made my way back to medicine, thanks to support from my “TCC family” and from scholarships like the Beazley Foundation,” McHugh explains.