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About the only jobs
one could be sure of landing in Harlan, Kentucky, 20 years ago
were as miners in the coal fields or as wait staff in local
restaurants.
So many young residents of the rural eastern Kentucky town ended
up leaving high school to find jobs in the carpet mills of
Dalton, Georgia.
That scenario happened to both Tony and Regina Edds, who knew of
each other in high school, but moved to Dalton separately and
were each involved in short-lived first marriages.
“I left school when I was a sophomore in high school and was 17
when I moved to Dalton,” recalls 38-year-old Tony, who is now
enrolled in the Associate of Science in Radiologic Technology
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“And I left for the same
reason,” says Regina, now 37, and an applicant to the Early
Childhood Education program. “I had quit school at 17 and moved
here with my husband and infant daughter. I worked at Queen for
a long time and took my General Educational Development (GED)
classes there. I got my GED in 1994.
“I found that going to school was addictive,” she adds. “I told
my friends, ‘I think I will go for my bachelor’s degree.”
About that time Tony, who earned his GED in 1995, and Regina had
each divorced and had reconnected, marrying in the summer of
1997. Their blended family consists of Regina’s daughter Janie,
now 20, and Tony’s son Anthony, now 16. Together they have a son
Zach, who is nine years old.
Everything for the working couple changed in 2003 when Tony was
injured in an industrial accident that left him unable to work
and resulted in several surgeries that left him temporarily in a
wheelchair.
“My doctor said you need to go back to school,” Tony remembers.
“I ended up with a settlement that was large enough for my wife
and me to come back to school full time. I decided that I was
not going to go backward. This is my second chance in life.”
Tony began taking classes in the fall of 2004, initially
pursuing a certificate in computer technology. But he soon
learned that he had a great interest in helping people who had
suffered injuries or skeletal problems like he had.
“Being able to help people by helping the doctors take x-ray
pictures is something I’d always wanted to do, but hadn’t had
the chance until my own unfortunate accident.”
It’s a field that he loves, and he especially enjoys doing the
clinical rotations in area hospitals, clinics, and orthopedic
centers, where he finds that he often experiences an “adrenaline
rush” while helping x-ray a patient.
On campus, he’s found the instruction to be challenging, but
thorough.
“Susan (West) and Cindy (Fisher) really put the homework on you.
They really do a great job, and they establish the desire to do
a great job in all of us. We’re all very supportive of each
other in the program. We’re like a little family.”
Regina has found her newfound career choice equally rewarding.
Having spent a few years as a pre-school teacher while Zach was
young, Regina found that she had a gift for teaching and she
knew in her heart that this was what she wanted to do.
“Dr. (Debbie) Baxter is always telling us that you “have to do
what suits your soul,” says Regina. “She says that if what
you’re doing doesn’t do that, you’re in the wrong field.”
Regina hopes to be teaching second or third graders before too
long, and she expects to graduate in the spring of 2010, about
one year after Tony earns his Rad Tech degree.
Being full-time students at the same time has been a very
positive experience for the couple.
“There’s a lot of rearranging, and a lot of planning ahead, but
our whole goal is for us both to be able to go to school
together and then to find good jobs,” Tony says.
They even advise each other on what elective courses to take,
they say.
“There are a few professors that stand out more than others, but
they’ve all been really great,” says Regina. “At our age, you
appreciate things more anyway. You seem to develop a positive
attitude about going to school and learning and that makes
things better.”
Acknowledging that non-traditional adult students often face
seemingly insurmountable “real-world” challenges, but tend to
work harder as “second-career” students than those just out of
high school, Tony encourages all “would-be” students to take the
plunge.
“You need to go for it,” he says. “There’s always a way. Don’t
ever pass up the opportunity to go to school. I wish I had done
this a long time ago.”
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