Graduates took different routes to EWU degrees

Two paths, same result.

Stephanie Conn, 19, finished her English degree at Eastern Washington University by skipping two years of high school.

Dorinda Belcher, 37, who was a promising high school student 20 years ago, will become the first person in her family to graduate from college.

Conn and Belcher are part of the estimated 2,500 students graduating from EWU this week.

Saturday’s commencement ceremony is usually held at EWU’s Woodward Field, but construction has moved the event to the Spokane Arena. The sound of a school bell recorded from the recently finished one-room schoolhouse bell on Cheney’s campus will begin the ceremony.

An unlimited number of guests may attend the ceremony at the Spokane Arena this year. The undergraduate ceremony begins at 9 a.m. Saturday for 2,038 eligible students. Another 480 graduate students begin commencement at 2 p.m.

Conn can’t attend her graduation ceremony, because she’ll start a new job at the University of Washington on Monday. She also missed her high school graduation from University High School two years ago, but high school wasn’t an ideal world for Conn.

“I didn’t feel like they respected us (in high school),” she said. “I felt like an adult, and they weren’t treating me like one.”

She discovered the Running Start program and decided she couldn’t wait for college. The program lets students obtain college credit while meeting high school requirements.

During her first college class, English 101 in the fall of 2000, Conn expected to receive some odd looks, even stares, from her older classmates. “No one noticed that I was younger or anything like that,” Conn said.

She maintained a 3.5 grade-point average. She’ll earn an English degree with an emphasis on creative writing.

There were critics of her decision to enter college so young. Friends and even teachers warned her about missing out on the high school experience, Conn said.

“In retrospect, in talking to my high school peers, 90 percent of them tell me they wished they had done Running Start,” Conn said.

There was a time when she wondered if she’d made a mistake, Conn said. She had left behind friends. She wasn’t part of the crowd at high school pep assemblies. She watched her high school graduation from the bleachers, more to support her friends, Conn said. Some friendships didn’t survive her college transition.

“I had become so different than the people at high school,” Conn said. “The things they cared about, talked about and freaked out about seemed so inconsequential to me.”

Conn, the oldest of three children, began taking her younger brother to classes with her so he could experience college. Her sister was already sold on the program.

Even though her first two years of college were paid for by the Running Start program, Conn said she’s $17,000 in debt, which she plans to pay off in three years.

She’s moving to Seattle to live in an apartment in the University District. She’s working as a UW extension program assistant. After a couple of years, when her student loans are paid off, she may travel to Italy, she said. Conn also is considering a master’s degree in technical communication. Her job benefits include free tuition.

“A lot of people my age haven’t even started college yet,” Conn said, pointing out how lucky she feels to have learned about Running Start while in middle school. “I think people are surprised a 19-year-old is capable of having ambition. Teenagers get a bad rap.”

Belcher took a different path toward her degree. In the small town of White Salmon, in southwest Washington, Belcher was captain of the cheerleading squad. She was on the drill team and received a few scholarships that paid for her first year at Spokane Falls Community College. She lived with her grandparents.

During her first year, she met the man she would marry, ran out of money for school and wed at 20.

“I liked school just fine. I would have continued to go. At the time, I wanted to be a physical therapist,” Belcher said.

As her family grew, Belcher began to home-school her three children and help her husband run a janitorial company based in Seattle.

By the time she reached her late 20s, she began talking about going back to school.

“When I was 19 or 20, I would have said I never want to be a teacher,” Belcher said. “I turned 32 and said, ‘I really want to be a teacher.’ ”

Her husband supported her decision and took a job as a long-haul trucker and the family moved back to Spokane two houses down from her mother’s home. Belcher first attended SFCC for two years, the transferred to EWU.

“There were points at the end of the quarter when summer was coming when I thought I was ready to be done,” Belcher said. “I felt like I was on a mission.”

At night while trying to sleep, she’d actually imagine what her classroom would look like and what kind of teacher she’d become.

“That end goal was always there,” Belcher said. “School is such a short part of your life and you have the rest of your life to live.”

She’s hoping to find work as a junior high teacher in Spokane, but she knows the market is tough, even for a cum laude graduate. Job or not, the education makes her happy.

“I’m more well-rounded. I know more about things. I’m a deeper thinker. Even if I don’t get a teaching job, I feel I’m a better person today because I went to college,” Belcher said.

“I’m not as narrow-minded as when I started.”