BC3 names 2 women to Pa. academic team
BUTLER TWP— Two women who had family struggles still earned degrees fromButler County Community College.
For that, they will get full scholarships to a four-year school.
Christina Green, 35, of Ellwood City and Kelly McIntyre, 42, of Zelienople were named to the 2008 All-Pennsylvania Academic Team. Winners, who are selected based on their academic record and a written essay, were chosen from the state's 14 community colleges and honored at a dinner March 31.
McIntyre will attend Slippery Rock University in the fall to enter the special education program in the spring semester. Now, she's finishing up dual degrees in special education and education at BC3.
She said she's always been interested in special education students. "I've always been interested in outside-the-box learning," she said. But she has a new perspective since she had her son, Jonathan, 11.
She was going to college for special education when she left to be with her son. Soon after his birth, McIntyre suspected he was autistic and he was diagnosed at age 3.
She was living in West Virginia at the time and said it could be frustrating to work with the school system and her son. After she moved here, she decided she didn't want to spend all her days doing nothing but worrying about her son, so she enrolled at BC3.
"I finally got up and went back to school," she said. "I remember the day I got online and registered for classes. I was terrified."
But she enjoyed the college experience during her three years. She volunteered at Glade Run Lutheran Services, taught children theater, joined the honor fraternity, and put on a musical fundraiser for autism that raised $1,200.She said she wanted to prove she could do it all."You can't look at it like poor me, I'm the victim," she said.And she gives credit to her son: "If it wasn't for my son, I couldn't have done this."Greene had a family member motivate her, too.It was just months after her mother died that Greene started full-time nursing classes.She graduated in 2006 from applied nursing, got a job as a registered nurse at UPMC Presbyterian, and in December she finished an associate's in psychology."I lost her and still kept going," she said of her mom. "That was no easy feat."She also is a member of the honor fraternity and the Ellwood City Lions Club.She began taking a class here and there after she graduated from high school in 1990, but for a time she stopped taking classes to care for her mother and grandmother.She, too, plans to attend Slippery Rock University in the fall to become a certified registered nurse practitioner."I was honored to receive (the award)," she said. "It hit home once it was all done."
