Darlene Wright

by Darlene Wright

Brrr….  I was freezing at 4 a.m. when I woke up on Jan. 14. I had been told the bus would be leaving at 6 a.m., so be there on time.

OK, a little about me:  I am a 47 year old single mother; I have had 5 children, 3 of whom are grown. I have a son in the Army stationed at Ft. Eustis. This is how I got here. I came to visit my son and I never left.

I have had some great jobs in my lifetime, but as with all good things, those came to an end. The economy moved some of the factories overseas and others went out of business. I got a job shortly after I arrived here as a telemarketer raising money for medical political action committees. Out of over $600,000 I raised for this company I made $12,000. See anything wrong with that picture? I did, so I visited a few colleges, asked a lot of questions. And I decided to save my income tax return to go to college to get a degree.

I am in the medical office administration program right now and will graduate in the summer. I am also taking a few IT courses, so I will graduate with my CompTIA  A+ certification and Networking certification. With these three certificates under my belt I really should be able to go anywhere!

I am involved on campus with SGA and also started (and am the president of) the Virginia Beach Computer Club. We fix up used computers and give them to students who do not own one. Eventually my goal is for this club to go college wide.

Back to the trip:  I arrived on the Virginia Beach campus at 5:30 a.m. not wanting to miss anything. By 6:30 a.m. we were on our way. The bus was packed with 40 exited students. Some had been before; for most of us, this was our first time.

When we arrived in Richmond we were rushed right in the Library of Virginia, where we were handed lanyards with our name on it, and a TCC sweatshirt. Kudos for the free stuff!

This is where the real story begins. Virginia Beach Campus Provost Michael Summers broke us into five groups of nine. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Summers — I just like him. He is very nice and involved with every aspect of our campus. He actually likes students, and takes time to talk to us. Which I assure you is a feat; we have a lot of students.

We broke off into our groups and traveled upstairs. It was packed with business suits everywhere and different groups of people.

The first person we got to meet was the new Senator from the 8^th District: Senator Jeff McWaters. I had just voted for him on Tuesday the 12^th, so it was quite an honor. What impressed all of us was he said he had attended a community college. Best smile of the day went to Senator McWaters.

The second person we met was Delegate Barry D. Knight from the 81^st District. I stared for quite awhile at his dark blue tie with bright pink hogs on it, and the pictures of hogs hanging in his office. He then told us he owned a hog farm. I was relieved. He was so nice and gave each of us time to talk to him. He asked where his son was — his son attends TCC Virginia Beach Campus. We all looked around like we don’t know — we could have lost him in the hallway! Best tie of the day went to Delegate Knight.

Next came my accidental meeting with Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling in the elevator. When we left Delegate Knight’s office, I got lost from my group and jumped on the elevator with group 5. Two men entered on the 3^rd floor.  One of them turned around and said, where are you from? I pointed at my sweatshirt proudly and said TCC. And then I asked, ‘and who are you?’ You can imagine the rest of the story. Group 5 burst out laughing. Needless to say my face was kind of red!

While I was waiting on my group to get off the elevator, I was talking to myself about being lost and out of nowhere this man stopped in front of me and handed me a pamphlet called the Virginia Capitol Connection. He introduced himself as Mr. David Bailey — CEO of David Bailey Associates and the creator of the infamous Red Book!

After a tour of the Virginia State Capitol and a look at the historic ceremonial mace for the House of Delegates, we headed to our final destination, the Tobacco Company, for lunch. Then it was time to head home back to Virginia Beach. The luxury liner bus was waiting to pick us up as we left the restaurant and a wonderful learning experience. Those who had been before said this was the best trip yet. Those of us who had never been were enthralled at all we had just seen and heard. I am writing this story in hope that the students of TCC will attend next year; it is an open and free trip to all students. Plus, I would like to read your stories :)

Now it’s time to hit the books. Game on, another semester begins.

Note:  Darlene Wright, student and SGA officer from the Virginia Beach Campus of TCC, is the first student-written blog of the 2010 Session. We hope to feature additional student stories as the Session continues.