In honor of Women\u2019s History Month, the SJCC Professor of English Michelle Blair invited five former and current SJCC students to share their story in the Tech auditorium, on March 7.<\/p>\n
Blair was expecting the audience would be inspired by the stories “because every of them was a story of life who ended up at SJCC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerry Jensen, 46, an undergraduate English student, now at San Jose State University, was one of the speakers. She valued the project because it was showing stories of community colleges students.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes people don\u2019t take community colleges seriously enough but it is a valid part of our educational,” Jensen said. “I\u2019m an older student, when I decided to go to college, I couldn\u2019t just drop everything I was doing. We push too many people to get 4 four year degrees. Vocational training is a very important part of our economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
During the presentation Jensen told how, despite many life events, she never gave up the idea of studying and how she could, at 46, transfer from SJCC to SJSU, hoping graduate by 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to say to the students: don\u2019t give up, if it is going to take you a long time to finish your education, don\u2019t worry, stick with it and finish,\u201d Jensen said.<\/p>\n
Among the other stories that day, Shameka Rast, 22, talked about her willingness to become a firefighter.<\/p>\n
Amanda Fuehrer, 28, told her battle to find a job despite her disability and the depression she was suffering from.<\/p>\n
Sia Saquee, 21, told her journey from an international student to the president of Student Affairs.<\/p>\n
Delia Martinez, 53, reminded the audience the daily fights of being able to go to school for someone with a disability.<\/p>\n
Pauline Allegrini, 21, CSU East Bay Law major was visiting SJCC to assist to the presentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was inspiring, emotional,\u201d said Allegrini. “When you see them, you don\u2019t realize they have this kind of story. It made us realize the people’s background and the struggle some people overcame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blair expected that the stories would make feel the students more aware.<\/p>\n
She said \u201cmaybe we\u2019ll start a movement about ‘telling your own story\u2019 and what that means and how that makes you feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event was hosted by the president\u2019s Art and Lecture Series Jason Adkins and the stories were coming from a project of book about students stories that Blair had for a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been touched by their stories and wanted to compile them,\u201d said Blair, who teaches a memoir class. \u201cIn magazines, telling your story is the \u2018zeitgeist\u2019, the wave of the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She interviewed SJCC students and selected 22 stories of men and women. She\u2019s now looking to publish them as a book.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In honor of Women\u2019s History Month, the SJCC Professor of English Michelle Blair invited five former and current SJCC students to share their story in the Tech auditorium, on March 7. Blair was expecting the audience would be inspired by the stories “because every of them was a story of life who ended up at…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,379],"tags":[],"staff_name":[682],"class_list":["post-11393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-showcase","staff_name-anne-caillat"],"yoast_head":"\n