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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/27/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
November 26, 2004 School Zone: By Cynthia Hodnett He grew up in an unstable home, where a lack of drive and discipline
nearly derailed him from following a straight and narrow path. But today
Smalls, 22, is a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Smalls credits enrolling in college, Jesus Christ and his father —
who is serving time in the Green Bay Correctional Institution — for
helping him turn his life around.
His first step toward changing occurred when he left Racine as a teenager
and moved to Green Bay to live in a foster home.
At home, he kept getting into trouble. The move provided the structure
he needed.
"It wasn't easy to change," Smalls said. "All of a sudden, you've got
rules. I never had rules that I followed."
Shortly after graduating from Green Bay Preble High School, Smalls lost
his job in security at Wal-Mart. He later joined the U.S. Army to gain
more education and job skills.
After two years in the military, Smalls enrolled at UWGB to study social
work. But it wasn't as simple as it sounds.
Ron Morris, program manager for the admissions office at UWGB, had to
convince Smalls he could attend college.
"I thought there's no way a college would accept me," Smalls said. "Ron
had come to Preble and I told him, 'There's no way I'm getting into college.'
My grades were really low and my ACT score was really low."
But Morris told Smalls there was a way.
Smalls enrolled in UWGB's Educational Opportunity Program, which admits
first-generation students, low-income students or students with disabilities
who don't meet the university's regular admission criteria but who show
potential to succeed in college.
"He was really resistant to the services that EOP offered — he
was like, 'I can do it on my own,'" Morris said. "I said, 'These services
are free, they are here to further your success.'
It wasn't enough for others to want him to succeed. Smalls needed —
and found — motivation within himself.
"In the program, they asked him to go to the study tables and he would
go," Morris said. "In the summer, he got his report card and the grades
were considerably better than the D's and F's he was getting in the first
and second semester. I think he realizes what he has to do to graduate."
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