DCCC Graduate and Scholarship Recipient Graduates Debt Free Thanks to Presidential Scholarship

Without the prestigious Presidential Scholarship she won in 2008, Andrea Packer, a 2010 honor graduate of Davidson County Community College, says she doubts she would already be pursuing her baccalaureate degree from Catawba College.

“I cannot say thank you enough to whomever paid for my education, and I am going to continue to do my best to make them happy that they invested in me,” she said. “When I received the Presidential Scholarship, it was an answer to prayer,” Packer explained. “I was floored, humbled and so excited. Receiving this scholarship lifted a huge load from my parents’ shoulders.”

Packer, age 20, spends her days on the Davidson Campus working 29 hours a week as a teaching assistant for instructors in the DCCC Early Childhood Education program, instructors she got to know well when they were her teachers. She uses her income to buy a house that she shares with her younger brother, a freshman at DCCC.
“Not only did receiving this scholarship make me study harder and be the best I could be, but it also allowed me to graduate in May 2010 with my associate degree totally paid for,” she said. “I couldn’t believe I had my first degree, and I was debt free. What a wonderful blessing!”

Since August 2010, Packer has been working toward her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Catawba College, and she doesn’t have to leave DCCC’s Davidson Campus to do so. She said she likes the convenience of leaving her teaching assistant’s job in one DCCC building and walking only steps to her evening Catawba classes where she is taking history, statistics and education courses. She anticipates graduating with a B.A. in Education from Catawba in December 2011 and then enrolling in the Master of Arts in Teaching program from Salem College, also offered on the Davidson Campus.

The DCCC Presidential Scholarship motivated Packer to challenge herself academically more than she ever had. “I had always been a good student, but receiving the scholarship made me want to excel even more because some stranger that I had never met was paying for me to go to school. They deserved nothing but my very best,” she said.

As a Presidential Scholar, Packer’s photograph was published on the DCCC Christmas card in 2008 as well as posted on the DCCC website. As a result, she said she felt like she had made hundreds of new friends on campus. “As I would walk around campus, people would look at me and I could see the recognition in their eyes that they had seen me somewhere before. Several students stopped and talked to me about the scholarship. It was an honor to talk about it and get my picture taken with our president, Dr. Mary Rittling.”

Her accomplishments at such a young age, combined with her high energy, enthusiasm and creativity are greatly appreciated by several full-time faculty members, six part-time adjuncts and the DCCC students she tutors, said Jody Lawrence, associate dean for the DCCC School of Arts, Sciences and Education. “I have full confidence that not only will she finish her bachelor and master’s degrees, but that she will someday pursue her doctoral degree,” said Lawrence. “She is one of the most outstanding students I have had in all my years of teaching.”

Teaching has been Packer’s career choice since she was a child growing up in Pennsylvania. “I’ve known I wanted to be a teacher since the third grade,” said Packer. “I want to be the best teacher I can be. My DCCC instructors in the Early Childhood program cultivated and developed that interest. Now that I’m working for them, I am learning even more but they also feel like a part of my family.”