Washington Monthly - September/October 2022 - 36

her navigate college life and even assist with a possible transfer
to a four-year college once she completed her associate's
degree. At lunchtime every day, Linda and other incoming
SWTCC participants gathered for a free meal provided by the
program. Speakers offered advice about what to expect in college.
Three weeks later, Linda passed her math placement test:
" I was like, 'Let's get it!' " said the longtime Memphis resident,
who has a big, deep laugh. " The summer program helped me
find my footing. "
Few students arrive at SWTCC well prepared. In fact, in
Memphis, half the students who graduate from local public
high schools and enter in-state public colleges require at least
one remedial class. At SWTCC, about 70 percent of students
are eligible for federal Pell Grants, compared with just 15 percent
at Ivy League institutions. Roughly a third of SWTCC students
are, like Linda, over 25 years old. Within three years of
Even before the pandemic,
nearly two-thirds of
community college students
and a majority of all
American college students
showed up on campuses
" unprepared " -defined as
requiring remediation.
Only 10 percent of students
who took remedial courses
earned their associate's
degrees within three years.
full-time classes, pursuing what is typically considered a twoyear
degree, only about 10 percent of students graduate, and
little more than 5 percent transfer to four-year colleges. But
Linda seemed determined to complete her degree. " This is my
time, and I'm willing to put in the effort, " she said. " Where my
head is right now is getting my bachelor's degree, so let's get
this part over with. "
I wrote about Linda and several of her SWTCC classmates
for this magazine last year. At the time, I worried about
how the novel coronavirus and the concomitant shutdown
of in-person instruction would affect students like her, who
statistics indicated faced unlikely odds-even before the
pandemic-of achieving associate's degrees, let alone transferring
to four-year colleges.
As I spent time with Linda, however, she seemed relatively
unfazed by the disruption to in-person classes. In her
36 September/October 2022
second year at SWTCC, she posted journal entries for her social
psychology class. For a theater class, she wrote a paper
about the difference between a live performance of The Wizard
of Oz and watching Hamilton on TV. She found a job at a nursing
home that paid enough to cover her textbooks, and she
considered the responsibilities a useful counterpart to her sociology
major. Even after testing positive for COVID-19, Linda
stayed up late to watch online lectures after her shifts and
imagined herself moving to a better position at the nursing
home after completing her associate's degree. She also envisioned
working with youth once she achieved her bachelor's
degree. However sleep deprived she might get, Linda told me,
she would do what was necessary to succeed.
" This is where I'm supposed to be, " she said. " I'm going to
school. I'm going to school. Or else SWTCC will have to put me
up out of here. You can get all the certificates in the world, all
the training in the world. But when you have a degree behind
your name, that degree makes everything else mean more. "
Nevertheless, after many of the initial supports provided
by the summer program faded away, Linda seemed unprepared
to seek the help she needed to get ahead on her own.
Crucially, assuming that she would graduate, she waited until
the end of her fourth full-time semester to take the necessary
steps to transfer to the University of Memphis, a local, public
four-year school. " Right now, I have to focus. I have to grind
this, " Linda said, explaining her rationale. " I'm just trying to
get through. " She intended to take fewer classes at the university
each semester, which she expected would make the final
" two years " to the bachelor's degree easier for her. " And with
the work study stuff there, I will still be at school and able to
do work, and I'll be getting paid, " she said.
As Linda approached the end of her second year at
SWTCC, she anticipated a happy, post-graduation summer,
catching up with family and friends and preparing to start
at the university. Since enrolling at SWTCC, she had stopped
watching television and taken a smaller apartment.
But when she filled out an SWTCC form for students intending
to graduate, Linda discovered that she had several
more classes to complete to reach the 60 credits required for her
degree. The remedial courses, she learned, did not count toward
that number, and she also had failed a credit-bearing class while
simultaneously enrolled in the remedial class supporting it.
Undeterred, Linda signed up for a third fall semester
and took a new job, driving patients to their doctor's
appointments. The position came with health insurance,
which Linda had never had, and a 401k retirement plan. Her
shifts, however, were longer than at the nursing home and-
because they demanded lifting clients on and off stretchers and
wheelchairs-left her more fatigued, reducing her motivation
to study into the night.
As days went by with little rest, Linda considered dropping
out. More than two years of full-time work and full-time
community college had caught up with her. Eventually, she
decided that she had accomplished enough. She had experienced
college and could get by on her work as a driver.
Washington Monthly - September/October 2022

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