LCCC Great Grads
Sharon Bailey
Single Mom only Second in Family to Earn College Degree
A few days before graduation Sharon Bailey’s parents pulled out a family photo album and pointed out pictures of aunts, uncles and cousins.
Out of the 21 aunts and uncles and 34 cousins, Bailey, of Sheffield Lake, will be only the second one to graduate from college. And, she’s earning two associate of applied science degrees on top of it – one in medical assisting (clinical) and the other in medical assisting (administrative).
“My parents are really excited and proud,” Bailey said.
And they should be.
Bailey did it all while raising three children as a single mom. “It was hard,” she recalls. “But I got my kids involved. They helped me study and quiz me with flash cards.”
She also is appreciative of the help she received from her parents as she sought her degrees. “When the kids were younger my mom and dad would take them for a while so I could study,” Bailey said. Her three children are now 21, 18 and 16 and they and her boyfriend have helped her make it through as well.
“They were all willing to make endless sacrifices during my journey,” Bailey said. “As long as it meant I was able to push forward toward my degrees.” She also had praise for her instructors who understood that she was a non-traditional student and they made themselves available to her when she had questions and problems. “They were wonderful,” Bailey said
Her ‘journey’ as she calls it actually began at LCCC in 2001. “I was taking classes but I had to take time off because I had some heart problems,” she said. Eventually she made it back and earned her degree and board certification as a phlebotomist.
Now 37 she has been working in home health care with the elderly while concentrating on her two medical assisting degrees. “I want to find a small office to work in where I can utilize all of my skills. Hopefully it will make me more valuable as an employee because I have both clinical and administrative skills,” Bailey said.
Now that her current academic life is coming to an end Bailey is proud of the fact that she was a member of Phi Theta Kappa – the academic honorary society for community college students – since November of 2006 and is carrying a 3.6 grade point average. “My kids tease me because I have a high GPA, but I think it has given them a sense of how important education is,” she said.
Bailey is also glad she took advantage of other volunteer activities that were available to her as a student. Those included working at the Special Olympics basketball tournaments at LCCC, at the student sponsored Thanksgiving meals and at Lifeshare blood drives.
“It helped me understand the community I live in. That we’re part of a bigger world and it’s not just about me,” Bailey said. “I made some great friends at LCCC.”