Pellissippi State graduate breaks family’s education cycle

For a girl who grew up thinking a college education was not a possibility for her, Donna Logan has come a long way. Last month she began pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Tennessee.

Logan

Logan’s path to a promising future began at Pellissippi State’s Blount County Center in the spring of 1998, a full 16 years after she graduated from high school. The long delay came partly for financial reasons, but mostly because she had been taught that her future lay solely in getting married and getting a job.

Neither of her parents had finished high school, let alone attended college, so Logan and her five siblings were not encouraged to even consider the possibility of going beyond grade 12.

“It’s a cycle,” she explained of the belief that higher education is reserved exclusively for a select few.

Only after she had a child of her own did she realize she wanted him to have an opportunity to break the cycle. She promised her son, Tucker, that he would one day go to college. When the two of them saw advertisements for Pellissippi State, the 8-year-old asked her a question that would alter her future.

“Have you gone to college?” he asked. “Why should I go if you haven’t?”

Believing that she ought to practice what she preached, Logan, with some trepidation, visited Pellissippi State’s Blount County Center. Previously discouraged by an inquiry at another school, where she was told “it was hard to get in,” Logan was pleasantly surprised at the warm welcome she received at Pellissippi State. She recalls that a friendly receptionist helped her through the application and financial aid process, and Logan was in the classroom within a week.

She began with developmental, or refresher, courses in English and math.

“I was completely terrified that I would not be up to standard because I saw those younger students and I was afraid I had forgotten so much since high school,” she said. “Sixteen years sounds like a lot, but it’s shocking, really, what sticks with you.”

Despite the demands of working and being a single parent, Logan had a successful first semester. That paved the way to her eventual graduation with honors from Pellissippi State in 2001.

Her approach was simple, she says: Her determination to get a degree and an interest in computers, which was first inspired by an adult education course and nurtured by her part-time work in a computer lab at the Blount County Center, kept her going.

“It is hard work, but not hard when you think of the choice of not having an education. You go to class, read, study and do the work.”

When she entered the University of Tennessee in the fall of 2001, she was no longer intimidated by its size and history. Pellissippi State had prepared her for the experience, she says.

“If I had started at a large, four-year school, I would have been overwhelmed. Pellissippi State is comfortable, just like being at home,” she said.

Logan received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from UT in December of 2003, and in August she began coursework in pursuit of a Master of Science in instructional technology. She wants to teach computing someday.

Although her degrees bring her a sense of satisfaction in her accomplishments and will undoubtedly provide her and her son with a brighter financial future, she takes the most pride in “breaking the cycle” of her family’s disregard for the value of higher education.

“There has been a complete transformation in my family,” she said.

Her son, Tucker, now a freshman at Bearden High School, has plans to get a doctorate in computer science. “I didn’t have those thoughts at 14 or 15,” Logan said.

In fact, the domino effect of her success has reached all the members of the next generation in her extended family. Despite the fact that her parents raised their children not to consider higher education, Logan says that now “all the grandchildren are expected to go to college.” And after watching her success, her brother is also beginning college this fall.

Of course, he’ll have a way to go to catch his big sister, but then, her example shows him it can be done.

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Community Relations Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

For past issues, visit the Inside Pellissippi Archive.