Student Profiles

Landry Bernard weathered a three-hour roundtrip twice weekly to attend Tidewater Community College. Jessica Littlefield had a similar haul — an hour each way from Carrsville to Virginia Beach. The classmates are part of TCC’s inaugural group of graduates from the Veterinary Technology program that launched two years ago. The only program in Hampton Roads […]

Rachel Wilson is making waves. At 17, she’s a pro surfer, but she’s also a college student. Wilson is getting a head start on a degree with dual enrollment courses at Tidewater Community College. The Virginia Beach native began taking dual enrollment courses at TCC last fall.  When she finishes high school in December, she […]

With two small children to support, Melissa Mason knew any job wouldn’t cut it. Mason, 30, always longed to be a nurse and even started a program only to abandon it twice due to her mother’s death followed by a high risk pregnancy. Melissa, what are you going to do? she asked herself. That’s no […]

“Why pay so much more for your general education when TCC is right in your own backyard?” That was the question high achiever Brooke Marcia asked herself. That led her to choose Tidewater Community College. A 2020 graduate from the international baccalaureate program at Princess Anne High, Marcia was accepted into the engineering program at […]

Dylan Wilson considered a career in meteorology and then firefighting before he settled on veterinary medicine. The Kempsville High School graduate was on track after graduating from Old Dominion University with a bachelor’s in biology. After working at Midway Veterinary Hospital, two realities became clear. Vet school carries a huge price tag. On average, graduates […]

With no background in health care, Navy veteran Oliver Grant turned to Tidewater Community College in hopes of training for a career. “I knew I wanted to go to school in the medical field and I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do,” he said. “From everything I heard, TCC was the best.” After […]

Between moves and mom life, Alyssa Beach never got around to college. When the Portsmouth resident finally carved out the time, she wanted to complete an associate degree program quickly. Tidewater Community College’s Accelerated Degree program offered her the opportunity to do just that. Beach is among three Portsmouth Campus students who completed associate degrees […]

Shannon O’Hara Wiora has Asperger syndrome, a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication. She’d often overhear the word “retarded” from her peers in high school. Yet she started taking classes at Tidewater Community College at 16. Today the 19-year-old is part of the Women’s Center STEM Promise Scholarship program. O’Hara […]

Talon Rodgers was one of those kids who liked to take things apart and put them back together. As a teen,  he worked alongside his father, a master technician. “I started by helping flip cars and worked my way up to my own projects. I learned the business really from the inside out,” he said. […]

With two children at home, Courtney Aristy didn’t want to work weekends anymore. She wasn’t about to go back to retail. She had limited experience in medical billing but no certification. Today she holds a management position at Optima Health and she spends Saturdays and Sundays with the kids. Aristy credits a three-month workforce training […]