Daughters Show Mom The Way To Community College Education
“The family that studies together succeeds together.”
That could well be the motto of the Cobbins family of the Williamsboro community of Vance County.
Two family members, mother Brenda and daughter Teleza, graduated from Vance-Granville Community College on May 13, something Teleza’s sister, Kendra, did several years ago. The girls’ brother, Ronald, is completing his freshman year at N.C. A&T University in Greensboro, and the youngest, brother Dishon, 11, is an academically gifted student at New Hope Elementary School.
How did it happen that Brenda and Teleza Cobbins are graduating together?
After graduation from Vance Senior High School, Brenda married and began to travel the world as a military wife and mother. Upon returning home, she began work at Alaris Systems in Creedmoor, where she stayed 12 years until she lost her job in a downsizing in 1999.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, then my daughters, Kendra and Teleza, talked me into returning to school at Vance-Granville,” Brenda Cobbins said. “They were both away at college (at UNC-Greensboro), and I would want to quit every week, but they kept pushing me and encouraging me to keep going.”
“It’s kind of funny how the tables turned,” Teleza said. “There was never any question in our house that the children would go to college or that we would excel. Our mother never allowed us to say, ‘we can’t.’
“So it became our turn to encourage her,” Teleza said. “She just applied the same philosophy to herself when things got tough that she had used with us.”
Teleza had joined her sister, Kendra, at UNC-G after graduation from Northern Vance High School. But, unlike Kendra, who thrived on the Greensboro campus, Teleza decided after about a year that she was not ready to be away from home at school. She returned to Henderson, worked for a year, and enrolled in Vance-Granville Community College in fall of 2002 while continuing to work in the evenings.
Meanwhile, Brenda Cobbins had entered VGCC two years earlier and was enrolled in the Teacher Associate program. She received her diploma in the program May 13 and will return in the fall to get a couple more classes she needs for her Associate in Applied Science Degree. Then she hopes to work in an elementary school.
Upon entering VGCC, Teleza thought at first she was taking a step back after being at a four-year university. “But I found Vance-Granville to be totally different from what I expected,” she said. “They offer courses on the same level as the university, and they offer so many more programs and have much more modern facilities and equipment than I had imagined.”
Teleza Cobbins received her Associate in Arts degree May 13 after completing the College Transfer program. This fall, she will return to college at N.C. A&T, much better prepared, she believes, to complete a double major in marketing and broadcast production.
“Being at Vance-Granville has helped me grow a lot and mature,” she said. “It gave me a chance to step back and reassess what I was doing, and now I’m sure I’m on the right track.
“All my instruction at VGCC has been outstanding, and the instructors were really enthusiastic and make you want to learn,” Teleza said. Her mother agreed.
What was it like to return to school after years of working and raising a family? “It was a weird transition. I had been working with my hands, and then I had to learn to use my brain,” Brenda Cobbins said.
She said at first she was concerned that she would be much older than her classmates, but she found there are many students at Vance-Granville older than the traditional college student. “Plus, soon I became just another mom to the younger kids, and it didn’t take long to gain their respect,” she said.
An obviously proud Teleza Cobbins said, “I’ve had so many students my age tell me how nice my mom is and how much they enjoy being in class with her.”
Teleza Cobbins, left, and her mother, Brenda Cobbins, have their gowns and mortarboards all set for spring graduation at Vance-Granville Community College. Teleza received her Associate in Arts degree after completing the College Transfer program, and Brenda earned a diploma in Early Childhood Associate/Teacher Associate and plans to return to VGCC for her associate degree.
