VGCC Opened doors for Henderson woman
When the company she worked for closed its doors, Esther B. Jiggetts (pictured above) of Henderson found open doors at Vance-Granville Community College. She pursued her lifelong dream of earning a high school equivalency diploma (GED), and has since taken more classes and earned multiple degrees. “I have overcome many obstacles to obtain personal success, no matter how long the journey took,” she said recently. Jiggetts told her story on the June edition of “Vance-Granville Today,” the college’s television program that airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on WAX-TV (Time-Warner Cable Channel 7 in some areas) and is available on the VGCC website ( vgcc.springerstudios.net ).
Jiggetts attended Eaton-Johnson School and Henderson Institute but dropped out of high school in the tenth grade to help raise her siblings and get married. While raising children with her husband, Edward, she also started working long hours at the local tobacco plant, J.P. Taylor Company. Still, in the back of Jiggetts’s mind, she had an unrealized goal: to get a high school diploma, and wear a cap and gown.
After Jiggetts had worked for the company for almost 41 years, J.P. Taylor closed, a few years before she could retire. Amidst her feelings of shock and frustration, Jiggetts said, “I was strong in my faith and belief that when one door closes, another opens. Vance-Granville Community College’s doors were open for me.” Jiggetts was now able to fulfill her dream of a high school diploma through the college’s GED program, which she completed in 2001 at the age of 58. “I was the happiest woman in the whole college that day,” she said. She decided to pursue other goals at VGCC, completing the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course in 2002, followed by computer classes, substitute teacher training and the Notary Public program. She graduated from the Teacher Associate program with a degree in 2007 and most recently graduated on May 15 with an Early Childhood Associate degree.
Jiggetts excelled as a student, often making the Dean’s List and serving as an officer in VGCC’s chapter of the Student North Carolina Association of Educators (SNCAE). VGCC awarded Jiggetts an endowed scholarship and recognized her with induction into the Phi Theta Kappa honor society in 2004. Jiggetts was surprised that such things could happen to a great-grandmother. “I see now that it can happen, no matter what age the individual is,” she said. “It is never too late to obtain your goals and dreams.”
Jiggetts would like to use her degrees to work with children, so that she can help them fulfill their dreams. “I need to talk to younger people and tell them not to quit school,” she said. “To keep going, go every day they can go, because they’re going to need it.”
