VGCC Graduate succeeds on the job, partners with school
Jacqueline Sills of Louisburg credits Vance-Granville Community College with jump-starting her career, and now she wants to work with the college to provide opportunities for today’s students.
Sills was employed at a software development firm as an office manager, when the company down-sized. “I’d always wanted to go to back to school, so I took that opportunity when I was laid off,” she recalled. She decided to attend VGCC’s Franklin County Campus “because of its good reputation and its convenience to my home,” she said. She also wanted to keep her education close to home because of her belief in supporting her community. Sills thought that the college’s Office Systems Technology/Legal program would add specialization to her background as an administrative assistant, and she had always been interested in the law. She found the Louisburg campus to be “clean and quiet — an environment conducive to learning.” Sills said that the welcoming attitude of instructors and VGCC staff helped her transition back into education. Her advisor, Kim Howell, was “very knowledgeable and helped me make decisions about classes and career goals.” Another instructor, Roxanne Jackson, “made it easy for me to learn. Even though I was working at the time, it wasn’t a chore coming to her classes.” Sills performed well in the classroom, was a member of the honor society, and was selected for a VGCC scholarship.
Sills juggled three part-time jobs while in school. “But I would do it again,” she said, “because the result was worth all the hard work.” The immediate result, when she graduated in 2005, was a new job: full-time administrative assistant at Raleigh-based Triangle Family Services, where she had worked part-time while a student. “Graduating from VGCC helped me to secure that position, and since then, I have gotten a promotion to supervisor of the DOSE program,” Sills said. “Having a degree also helped me get that position, so VGCC has definitely had a good impact on my career path.” DOSE is a treatment program for people who commit acts of domestic violence. Triangle Family Services has recently expanded the program into Franklin County, and Sills is in charge of the Louisburg office. Now, she is working with her former instructors at the Franklin County Campus to find students who are interested in being interns at the Louisburg office. “We believe their experience will be very rewarding,” she said. The partnership gives Sills “a wonderful feeling, because I know what VGCC did for me, and I still want to support the community in which I live.”
Looking back, Sills said that her VGCC education “equipped me to challenge myself when I went back into the workplace. I had boundaries of what I could do before, and I broadened those boundaries.”
Above: Jacqueline Sills (seen here at VGCC’s Franklin Campus) is an example of how Vance-Granville and other North Carolina community colleges create success through hope, opportunity and jobs. (VGCC photo)
