VGCC nominates student for statewide achievement award

Vance-Granville Community College recently nominated Rebecca Fetterhoff of Creedmoor, a student in the college’s Early Childhood Associate program, for the North Carolina Community College System’s Dallas Herring Achievement Award. That award was established by the system in 2010 to honor the late Dr. Dallas Herring , the longtime State Board of Education chairman and one of the state’s earliest advocates of community colleges. Each year, the award recognizes a current or former community college student who best embodies Herring’s philosophy of “taking people where they are and carrying them as far as they can go.”

 

Fetterhoff recalled that although “raised in a middle class family,” as a young woman, she found herself struggling financially to raise her children. She enrolled in Niagara County Community College in western New York, where she lived at the time. She obtained a degree and a new job in the Human Services field that allowed her to stop relying on public assistance. Just as importantly, her education boosted her “pride, confidence and self-esteem,” giving her the strength to leave an abusive relationship.

 

Later, Fetterhoff married and moved to North Carolina, where she needed to re-establish a career. “I decided to enroll in a community college again,” she said, referring to VGCC. “I was only planning on taking a few classes in order to get a job, but the wonderful advisors at the college urged me to continue on to complete my associate’s degree.”

 

Fetterhoff excelled in the classroom, making the Dean’s List and recently being accepted into the Phi Theta Kappa honor society. She has also been a member of VGCC’s chapter of Student North Carolina Association of Educators. Fetterhoff has taken classes online and at the college’s Main Campus, South Campus and Franklin County Campus , and is set to graduate in May. Meanwhile, while continuing her studies full-time, she has already become employed in the education field, as a media assistant at two Granville County schools, Creedmoor Elementary and Mt. Energy Elementary. “Instead of receiving state benefits to subsidize my income, I receive state employee benefits as part of my income,” Fetterhoff said. “My children now see that hard work and dedication have positive rewards, and I can now hold my head high knowing that I overcame so many obstacles throughout my life.” She added that she believes in giving back to her community and is active in church groups, PTA organizations at the two elementary schools and the Parent Teacher Student Organization at South Granville High School, which she has served as secretary.

 

Above: Rebecca “Beckie” Fetterhoff in a VGCC classroom. (VGCC Photo)