I commend Gregory Kane on his Sept. 21 column, “Brenda Barney’s happy ending,” which details Barney’s successful completion of her personal journey from high school dropout to college professor.
It’s an inspiring story: Deciding in middle age that she wanted more out of life than her employment as a corrections officer in the state prison system, Barney returned to school to complete her education. Her determination eventually brought her to Baltimore City Community College, where she not only found her footing as an adult learner, but also gained the confidence to earn an associate of arts degree from BCCC and then to pursue a bachelor’s degree. She did just that at Johns Hopkins University, a school she would never have considered within the realm of possibility had it not been for the urging of her mentor, Baltimore City Community College English professor (and Hopkins alumna) Lynn Kerr.
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Barney earned the bachelor’s degree in management and leadership in 2006, and a master’s, also from Hopkins, the following year. This past June, Barney was hired to teach criminal justice for the University of Phoenix and will start teaching the same subject at University of Maryland University College in January. To my great delight, she attributes much of her current success to her experience as a student at Baltimore City Community College.
In his column, Kane correctly described BCCC as “perhaps the most underrated, underappreciated and unheralded of all our institutions of higher learning.” Surely, publicizing success stories like Barney’s helps to bring our college some of the positive recognition it so richly deserves.
“Barney wanted to be sure people who’d read her story knew that her efforts at returning to school and getting two degrees did not go unrewarded,” wrote Kane.
I thank him for helping to get that message out. At Baltimore City Community College, we take very seriously the mission stated in our tag line: “Changing Lives … Building Communities.” It’s what we’re all about.
Carolane Williams, Ph.D.
President
Baltimore City Community College
