VIDEO: Signing of Germanna-UMW agreements a "win-win." Here's what they mean for students.

Germanna Community College President David A. Sam and University of Mary Washington President Richard V. Hurley have developed a close working relationship that's paying off for area students.  Watch Patch.com video by Dan Telvock above of them talking about that relationship and signing historic agreements today that will make degrees more accessible and affordable. MORE   
And read today's Fredericksburg.com report by Pam Gould here on what those agreements will mean to students.
  
For more, go to www.germanna.edu.

"It's never too late," says Germanna Community College student who overcame her fears to return to school after 27 years

Sherry Loehr spent 14 years as a substitute teacher in Spotsylvania County, “and I loved every minute of it.”
But to get where she wanted to go in teaching, she needed a teaching certification, and she didn’t have one.
She put off going to college for years, thinking she was too old--that she wouldn’t be able to do it.
Now she has an evangelical zeal about people beyond the “traditional” students’ age going back to school, even if they fear that they’ll be too rusty to pick up where they left off.

“I want to tell everyone they can do it,” Loehr said.

“Even if they don’t test well in the math or English, Germanna will help you.”
After having been out of school for 27 years, Loehr needed some tuning up on math. “I was afraid I was going to fail the [placement] test. For an older student like me, that was really scary. But you don’t fail, you just take developmental classes. I needed a little refresher. I don’t feel I would have passed calculus and statistics if I hadn’t had that background.”
Once she jumped into the pool, she said, the water was warm. All her fears faded away and she loved it.
“If there’s anything I got from this whole experience, it’s that it’s never too late,” she said.
Germanna President David A. Sam likes to say that America’s reached a point at which lifetime learning is a necessity--that everyone is going to have to change jobs a number of times. That we will have to reinvent themselves. And that we all need to take classes to stay current in whatever our field is right now.
“I thought I was too old to go back to school and that if I did, once I finished school, I would be too old to get a job,” Loehr said. “Now I know I’m going to get a job--and I have at least 20 years to work.”
She earned her associate’s degree at GCC and transferred to the University of Mary Washington, where she’s decided she wants a career in historic preservation.
“Germanna really prepared me so well,” she said. “Everybody was saying it was going to be so much harder at UMW, but it’s not.”
She has four children, all of whom attended Germanna.
Her daughter Sarah Loehr entered GCC’s nursing program, then transferred to VCU to earn a financing degree and now is studying law.
Her son Paul Loehr started at Longwood. “He joined a fraternity and things sort of went downhill. It wasn’t a good situation. My husband and I said, ‘You need to come home. He did and things went reaally well.” After getting back on course at Germanna, he transferred to VCU, where he was a business major and earned a degree in accounting.
Her son Adam dropped out of high school, got his GED with Germanna’s help, then entered Germanna’s Automotive Program. “Adam has a wonderful job working as an automotive specialist in downtown Fredericksburg, “ she said.

“Last year my baby, Matthew, my youngest child, was going to J. Sergeant Reynolds. He was unhappy. He came back home and went to Germanna, and I thought it was pretty funny that we took four classes together.” Matthew was 18 and his mother was 46.
But no one’s laughing at this older, “non-traditional” student.
“My kids are so proud of me,” she said. “They really admire that I’m able to do this.”

“I want to tell everyone they can do it. It’s never too late.”
Once you take that leap, she said, you can succeed.
“Germanna’s changed my life.”

She said she’s also glad she started at Germanna because: “I saved so much money. If I’d spent those first two years at a four-year school, I would have accumulated a lot of debt.”
She said GCC saved her family a great deal of money in the education of her four children, too.
“I was one of those parents who bought into the idea of prestige. ‘My kid’s got to go to UVa; my child needs to go to this big school.’ It was peer pressure.’
She said her oldest daughter Sarah initially wanted to stay home and go to Germanna, but she pressured her to go elsewhere. Then Sarah ended up at GCC anyway, until she was ready to leave home. Now she’s at the Charlotte School of Law.
“Parents need to think about how much savings they’d have if they sent their children here for two years,” she said. “They’ll still get bachelor’s degrees that say ‘Mary Washington’ or the name of whatever four-year school they transfer to.”

Steve Watkins' new book "What Comes After" a powerful local story of child abuse. He will do a reading from the book and sign copies at GCC March 29

Steve Watkins, author of "What Comes After," brings his new book to GCC's Frederickburg Campus at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 29.

Award-winning journalist and author Steve Watkins will do a reading from his new book, "What Comes After," and sign copies of the new work at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 29 at Sealy Auditorium at Germanna Community College's Fredericksburg Campus in Spotsylvania off U.S. 17 near Cosner's Corner.
The event is free and open to the public. He'll also sign copies of the paperback version of his award-winning book 'Down Sand Mountain."
"What Comes After" will be available at Germanna before it goes on sale on the Internet and in stores on April 12.
Watkins, an English professor at the University of Mary Washington, explains that "What Comes After" is based on a local incident:
“In a way, the story of Iris Wight in 'What Comes After' started several years ago when I was sitting in a juvenile and domestic relations court during an emergency removal hearing, reading an autopsy report on a little 5-year-old boy who had been beaten to death. His name was Donny. He had more than 40 pronounced contusions, two broken ribs, a broken collar bone, and a skull fracture — all in various stages of healing, indicating that he had sustained the injuries over an extended period of time. In the autopsy photos he appeared emaciated, as if he’d been starved. He also had two severe traumas to his abdomen caused by what the medical examiner said were powerful external blows. The second, and most recent, was the one that killed him.

“None of us who worked on that case, which lasted two long years and led to terrible revelations about even more physical and sexual abuse of Donny and his siblings, have ever been the same. It was my job as a Court Appointed Special Advocate to investigate Donny’s story, and the stories of his brothers and sisters, and to write a narrative that would bring those children to life for the judge presiding over the case — and, in a way, to bring Donny back to life, if only in my report, and if only for a little while, and if only for the court. None of us doubted that the surviving children would be scarred forever by what happened to them, but thanks to the love and dedication of a lot of people involved in the case —therapists, attorneys, social workers, foster parents, teachers — Donny’s brothers and sisters ended up with families who loved them and promised to take care of them. They had a chance — at least a chance — to recover, and grow up safe, and live meaningful lives.

“When I read an article two years ago in our local newspaper about a girl who had been badly beaten by her cousin, on orders from her guardian aunt, I was struck by how few details there were about the girl — though that is usual in the case of underage victims, who are rarely identified to the public by police or prosecutors. The article didn’t say what her life had been like before she was beaten, or what happened to her after, except for this one sentence: ‘The girl is now in foster care.’ The more I thought about that girl and what happened to her, though, the more I felt drawn to tell her story, too — as I imagined it — for a wider audience than the court. I knew she wasn’t just another foster care kid, and she wasn’t just another victim. She must have had a life, and a story worth telling. All children do.”

'Thank you for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself'

Anita Newhouse of Culpeper didn't believe she was smart enough. She was wrong ...

I came up with every excuse I could think of:

“I have a child.

“I work full time.

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

The truth is, my self esteem and confidence were so low that I honestly didn’t think I would be successful in college. I thank God I listened to a friend who pushed me to enroll at Germanna Community College in 2000. She suggested taking one class at a time until I was used to that, and then later taking more than one class each semester. As each semester passed, my confidence increased and I held my head a little higher.

I couldn’t believe that I was going to college and that I was working towards an associate’s degree! No one in my family had ever attended college, and now I was. It felt amazing.

One of my professors at GCC, Randy Martin, encouraged me to check with the University of Mary Washington to find out what classes that I had already taken would transfer as well as what other classes I could take at Germanna that would transfer. I humored him, still not believing it was realistic. Mr. Martin checked with me periodically to see where I was in the process. He even said that he was not going to let me stop at an associate’s degree.
One day I realized that if he believed in me and he thought I could do it, maybe I should pursue it. But I didn’t have the money to continue my education. And though my self esteem had increased during my time at Germanna, I was still not confident enough in myself to believe that I could also be successful at a university. I simply thought I was not smart enough.

I met with an advisor at UMW and was able to take a lot of classes at GCC that would transfer. Germanna provided me with educational assistance for tuition for these classes as well as for the books.

In addition to working full time and attending school, my husband and I are small business owners, and this takes a lot of my time. I was only able to take one class a semester at UMW. I didn’t really have the time or money to devote to any more than that.

In April of 2009, an email about a fellowship program was sent to all state employees. I quickly closed the email without really reading it because at the time I didn’t realize what it was. Later that day my wonderful supervisor, Sarah Somerville, came to me and asked if I had read the email. I told her I looked at it briefly but that I didn’t really know what it was or if it even pertained to me. She explained to me that it was the Chancellor’s Fellowship scholarship and she encouraged me to apply for it. If she hadn’t brought it to my attention, I would never have applied. I did, and I was awarded the scholarship which provided me the opportunity to be a full-time student for the first time ever.

Not only could I be a full-time student and not have to balance work, but I also had no worries about the cost of attending the university as my salary and tuition would be taken care of during the academic year in which I was attending school. Dr. David Sam, Germanna’s president, called to tell me that I was awarded the scholarship and when I hung up with phone with him, I cried. I cried because I was so grateful for the opportunity and I couldn’t believe that I was going to be receiving my Bachelor’s degree.

As a full-time student, I was able to network and build relationships. This was something I was never able to do before while balancing other things in my life. When I finished classes at Germanna, I would always rush home to my family. As a full-time student, I was able to stay after class to discuss my thoughts on various things and build relationships that I will continue to maintain.

On May 8, 2010, I graduated from the University of Mary Washington with my Bachelor’s degree in Leadership and Management. I am forever grateful to so many people for supporting me through this journey and providing me with this opportunity.
Thank you, Chancellor Glenn DuBois, for providing such a scholarship. Thank you Sarah Somerville, for being such a wonderful and selfless person and encouraging me to take advantage of this opportunity though it would mean I would have to leave the counseling office. Thank you Randy Martin for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Also, thank you Pam Frederick for being so supportive of me at all times.
I can’t tell you how much it means to have such wonderful supervisors who encourage growth and want the best for their employees. Joan Fischer, Kelly Wolfe, Katey Denner, and Dean Rowe, thank you all for always believing in me! Dr. Sam and Victoria Waldron, you both were willing, without hesitation, to write letters of reference for me and I am so grateful for that as your opinions and insight are extremely valued.

Thank you as well to every single employee at Germanna who has believed in me, and shared in my exciting journey.

God bless you all!

--Anita Newhouse