{"id":876,"date":"2024-12-19T15:15:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/?p=876"},"modified":"2024-12-19T15:15:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:15:30","slug":"student-support-services-help-anderton-finish-what-he-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/?p=876","title":{"rendered":"Student support services help Anderton finish what he started"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Illness, divorce and even homelessness could not deter Steve Anderton<\/strong> from finishing his associate degree at Pellissippi State.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the two years Steve Anderton<\/strong> has been a student at Pellissippi State, he\u2019s had six different addresses, gotten married and divorced, experienced homelessness and suffered two major illnesses. But through it all, Steve\u2019s professors kept telling him not to give up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the way through, the most common message I heard from the school was \u2018just don\u2019t quit\u2019 — keep trying, do what you can and just don\u2019t walk away,\u201d shares Steve. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for those people who were in my corner cheering for me, I probably would have walked away a year ago.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve was born and raised in Australia and moved to the States with his father after high school. After working in retail for years, he was happy working at a small, mom-and-pop computer store. Everything was going great until the store was held up in an armed robbery and Steve realized he didn\u2019t want to work in retail anymore. His girlfriend encouraged him to apply to Pellissippi State, where they ended up taking classes together for a semester before she graduated.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve and his girlfriend got married and moved into student housing at the four-year university where she had transferred. Unfortunately, the marriage didn\u2019t work out, and Steve\u2019s wife asked him to leave their apartment the week of finals.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an interesting journey. If you\u2019ve ever been through a divorce or relocation, your life kind of blows apart,\u201d shares Steve. \u201cI had really bought into the dream of being a full-time student, and then I had nothing. So here I was — unemployed, homeless and struggling.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve emailed his professors to explain he was homeless and jobless and unable to finish his finals. All were encouraging and did what they could to help him finish with good grades.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey all asked me what do you need, what do you have, what can I do?\u201d he says. \u201cOne of my professors encouraged me to find some way to take my finals and my response was, \u2018I wish I could!\u2019 I have greater things to worry about right now, like it\u2019s cold outside and I don\u2019t want to sleep in my truck and where\u2019s my next meal coming from. You know, Maslow\u2019s hierarchy of needs \u2013 I’m far from self-actualization at this point!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone Steve knew at Pellissippi State reached out and told him not to quit. He found support and help in many places, including Student Care and Advocacy, Counseling Services and TRiO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Student Care and Advocacy office really helped carry me through,\u201d Steve says. \u201cThey came up with some money to help me pay my rent, gave me Food City cards so I could eat. They really put a lot out there to help me through the really, really tough times.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve also began going to counseling every week with Pellissippi State\u2019s Counseling Services.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were extremely helpful,\u201d he shares. \u201cIt was great to be able to sit down and talk with someone, and they pointed me in the direction to get more assistance.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Steve found support and encouragement in TRiO, which offers one-on-one support for students who are first-generation, low income or who have a disability.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTRiO has always been there for me,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019ll even text and check up on me if I haven\u2019t showed up in the office for a couple weeks.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite monumental challenges, Steve never gave up and will be graduating from Pellissippi State this May with his Associate of Science degree. He plans to go back to Australia after he graduates to be with his mother and hopes to continue his education at a university in Sydney.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much help here,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are people waiting to help you right this very moment in any way they can. When you\u2019re thinking you\u2019re helpless and hopeless and not good enough, there\u2019s someone at this school waiting to tell you that you are good enough, that there is hope, that there is reason to continue \u2013 and they\u2019re going to show you how to do it. You just have to ask for that help.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of his professors and student services at Pellissippi State, Steve overcame extreme obstacles and found the support he needed to finish strong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t overcome all these things because I\u2019m any kind of miracle worker or anything special,\u201d says Steve. \u201cI overcame it because of all the help this school gave me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the two years Steve Anderton has been a student at Pellissippi State, he\u2019s had six different addresses, gotten married and divorced, experienced homelessness and suffered two major illnesses. But through it all, Steve\u2019s professors kept telling him not to give up.  \u201cAll the way through, the most common message I heard from the school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}