I graduated in the spring
of 1993. I had plans to attend Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. I
had already applied and submitted transcripts along with my ACT results in the
early spring. I was accepted and had
spent time visiting the campus and meeting faculty. Some faculty members, I had met during my
senior year at various music competitions. They would come to recruit young aspiring
musicians. The music department at Midwestern was a solid program. They were
interested in me and had offered me a scholarship to attend their school. My plan
was to pursue my fine arts degree in music after years of musical training. College
was my ticket out of Electra. They were pleased with my musical abilities and
interest peaked when I competed at the Texas All state Solo contest for the
past two years. I had also auditioned for the area band and earned first
chair. I was the top player in my area
of the state. Midwestern was not the
only school interested in me. I had turned down an offer to attend Oberlin
Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio. The Conservatory
of Music offers four-year undergraduate programs leading to the Bachelor of
Arts degree. It was a prestigious school that came with a high price tag. The cost of out of state tuition was a big
deal and even with a scholarship, I would go into debt in student loans. There
was no way I could reasonably go there.
About a month before I was to graduate, I was
called to the office. I hated going to
the office, and thought I was in trouble.
I had no idea what it was about.
I was introduced a woman named Ann.
I think her last name was Green. I am not sure, after all it has been
over twenty years. She was from Wichita
Falls and was in Electra to meet a few students. Apparently, my name had been given to
her. She was friendly and seen anxious
to sit down and talk. We found a table
in the student center. She asked me
about my time in high school. She seemed
to like the fact that I was involved in music. It was unclear to me why she
wanted to talk to me. She also asked
about how I was going to pay for college.
I told her I had a scholar ship and some help from my family. Plus I was
going to work while taking classes.
Ann asked me if I had ever heard of the
JTPA. That is where she worked. I had never heard of them. She explained that there was a program that
would allow me to earn some credits during the summer and work part time
too. I had no plans to go to college in
the summer, I was enrolled at MSU in the
fall. She took time to explain
more. Vernon Junior College was part of
the program. They would provide housing
in their dorms and students would attend college classes on the Vernon
campus. The program alos provided part
time jobs for the students in the program.
There were 40 students in the program that were from towns in the
area. The best part was, there would be
no cost to me. My family was considered economically disadvantaged. That is a polite way of saying, we were
poor.
The Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 (JTPA) was a United
States federal law passed October 13, 1982, by the United States Department of
Labor during the Ronald
Reagan administration. The law was the successor to the previous
federal job training legislation, the Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act (CETA).
It was repealed by the Workforce
Investment Act of 1998 during the
administration of President Bill
Clinton. The law was enacted to establish federal assistance programs to prepare youth and unskilled adults for entry
into the labor
force and to
provide job training to economically disadvantaged and other individuals facing
serious barriers to employment. This program would help me earn 12 credits
before I started my classes in the fall at MSU.
Some students started the
program in the Summer I semester, but did not come back for the Summer II
semester. I was able to take freshman
English, College algebra, and even a history class. I would go to class in the
mornings and work in the afternoon. I
was supposed to work at the local library, but was asked if I might like
working at the local chamber of commerce instead. They had originally requested
a female student to do clerical work. I would have to dress nice every day and
wake up early to iron my shirts. Most everyone else went to work assignments in
short and t-shirts. I said yes! I was a clerical assistant and worked under
the direction of the executive assistant Ms. LuJuana Long. She was an older
woman who was friendly and smart. She taught me about the chamber business and
gave me responsibilities and duties around the office. I would type letters, file documents and help
greet visitors. I also worked helping
the executive director set up for meeting.
His name was John Bates. He was a
super nice older man who could talk your ear off. He loved telling me stories about how he grew
up in far south Texas. They were really good people to work for. After work each day, I would wait out front
of the Wilbarger court house for the van to pick me up and return the students
back the college campus. A few times, the
program director Frank Grima, would pick me up in his blue 1965 Impala. It was old with vinyl bench seats and no air
conditioning.
I liked living in the
dorms. I had spent time at music summer camps for the last few years, so being
away from home was not really a problem for me. Plus Vernon was only 30 minutes
away from Electra. I could go home on the weekends and talked to my family
often. I had a roommate who was a pain
the neck and very messy. The first day, he had taken over the room and his mess
made a terrible first impression. I
don’t think we could have ever been friends. Most time we just stayed out of each
other’s way and did not socialize together. So for the second summer semester,
I requested a room change. The program
also had mentors who would take us on weekend trips and served as liaisons for
the manager of the program. You could
ask them questions about the program and they would coordinate group activities
such as dinners out on the weekend and even took the group to see ‘Texas, the
outdoor musical” at Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo. I made friends with the other students in the
program as well as the “regular” students in my classes. I liked Fridays, because we would get paid
for our work and could cash our checks at the campus business office. I had my own car. A few of us would go eat or
occasionally found someone to buy alcohol.
We would drive up and down the local drag which stretched across
Wilbarger Street from the court house all the way to college. We would drink in
the car. My mother would have freaked
out if she knew, but really I was enjoying my new independence.
My classes all went
well. There was one, algebra, that
really kicked my butt, but I passed with a C.
The instructor moved so quickly, I often didn’t understand. I could tell college was a totally different
ball game.
I was thankful for
education and experience I gain that summer.
I would eventually lose touch with friends from Vernon College. I gained work good experience and enjoyed working
the Chamber office. I was touched at the end of the summer when the chamber
bought me a small gift for being such a good intern. They enjoyed teaching me and I enjoyed learning
from them. I had a head start on my
college education. And I gained independence
from living in the dorms. It was a good
experience for me and I’m thanks for the people involved in the JTPA program
who made it all happen.
