Germanna Community College Fall Commencement speaker Anita Newhouse: Don't let doubts hold you back

Anita Newhouse didn't believe she was college material. She was wrong.

She says she came up with every excuse she could think of not to enroll at Germanna Community College.

“I have a child.”

 “I work full time.”

“I wasn’t a good student in high school.”

GCC 2012 Fall Commcncement speaker Anita Newhouse

“The truth is,” she says, “ my self-esteem and confidence were so low that I honestly didn’t think I would be successful. I thank God I listened to a friend who convinced me to enroll at Germanna in 2000. She suggested taking one class at a time until I was used to that and then taking more than one class each semester. As time passed, I became more confident and I held my head higher.”

Go to The Free Lance-Star's coverage of GCC's 2012 Fall Commencement.

Newhouse, who was Germanna Community College's 2012 Fall Commencment speaker on Dec. 17, was 29 years old when she started at GCC.  Her goal was to earn a bachelor’s degree by the time she was 40. She did it in half that time, graduating from the University of Mary Washington when she was 34.

 Now, at 36, the Lignum resident is manager of Germanna’s Welcome Center at the Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper, which brings together counseling, financial aid and admissions resources to help students in that area find the answer to any questions they have, overcome any doubts they have, and get off to a flying start.

 

 

  She says she can identify with “the hesitation, the anxiousness, the worry and the fear” some students feel as they enter college.

 “If you the burning desire to do it, follow your dreams and don’t let age hold you back from what you want to do. Believe me, you can.”