Vernon College 1993

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.