With Honors: Alumni profile of Sandy Serra

When Northeast State alumna Sandy Serra picked her college diploma last spring, it marked an achievement she never imagined. She called her mom and sent a photo of her degree. Her mother noticed something in the photo that her daughter didn’t see.

“My mom said, ‘Read your diploma,’” Serra said.

When Serra gave it the once over, she saw the Latin words cum laude on her diploma. That moment the New Jersey native realized she had graduated with honors from a college she first heard about on the radio.

“When I picked up my diploma that’s when it really hit me,” Serra said. “I started to cry with my mom on the phone.”

The Garden State to Northeast State

Serra’s journey took more turns than an Appalachian back road. Her great-grandparents were from Spain. The tumultuous times of 20^th century Europe brought her family to Puerto Rico. Her parents were born there and later moved to New Jersey. Serra grew up in a working-class neighborhood of northern New Jersey. As a high school student, Serra found few opportunities available for a young woman.

“I had to prove not to myself so much but to other people,” said Serra. “It is easier to doubt and put people down than to give them a word of praise.”

Serra recalled her upbringing as very traditional in her Hispanic family. To put it bluntly, that meant women stay home and get married, the men work and support the family. The idea of women attending college found no place in a family discussion.

“I never knew there were options, that you could have taken out student loans, or pursued work study,” she said. “They were never offered to me growing up.”

Serra said her father jokingly told her she wasn’t smart enough to go to school. All joking aside, that painful remark stings her to this day.

“My mom asked me, ‘Are you going to send a picture to your father of you graduating?’” Serra recalled. “I said no, I’m going to wait until I have my bachelor’s degree.”

Her parents divorced during her senior year of high school. Those circumstances left her and her mother homeless. Other family members offered no help. A co-worker of her mother took them in until they found a new residence. Serra had little choice at the time except to drop out of high school and go to work.

“You’ve been told so many times you are not smart, you are dumb. You hear that so much in your life,” Serra said. “Don’t let anyone say you can’t do something. That was told to me over and over again.”

Shortly thereafter, she married her husband John and moved to New York. She earned her high school diploma.  Serra said her husband and two children are steadfast sources of support in all her endeavors.

The family often traveled to the Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg on vacation. The area appealed to them. When her husband retired the family moved to Tennessee. The move came shortly after the 9-11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

College life

Sandy Serra first heard about Northeast State on a radio advertisement. The phrase, ‘We’re here to get you there’ clicked.

She recalled her first visit to campus and meeting Sheila Jackson in Enrollment Services. She went through admissions and new student orientation with Sheila who guided her through the enrollment process.

Her first semester proved challenging. Professors pushed her academically and personally. She enrolled in Honors classes requiring significant coursework and projects for ambitious students. Serra admits having her doubts about finishing even one semester in college.

“I signed the papers and said, let’s see how far I can go with this,” she said. “Do I have it in me?  Can I really do this?”

Indeed, she did. Serra applied for and received the Tennessee Reconnect Grant for non-traditional student.

The spring 2021 semester found her battling health issues, school work, and a global pandemic. She soldiered on to finish her coursework online like so many of her peers. Over a long and sometimes painful road, she achieved what many told her she could never do. As a woman of strong faith, Sandy praised God for giving her the strength to persevere through every challenge. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different.

“Life is still happening,” said Serra. “You have to be smart and do what is best for you and your family.”

She refused to pass any negative thinking on to her own children. Her daughter Kayla is also a Northeast State alumna, and a licensed practical nurse now pursing her bachelor’s degree in Nursing. Her son John is enrolled at a four-year university working toward his bachelor’s degree. Serra and her son aim to graduate together with their degrees.

“I always tell my own kids, ‘You are smart enough, you can go as far as you want to go,’” she said. “My son has always cheered me on and told me, ‘I’m proud of you.’”

Added support came when Serra found several like-minded students when she enrolled in Honors classes. Honors students take on additional course assignments and collaborate on projects.  The academic-intense yet flexible nature of Honors classes suited Serra’s learning style. Her favorite professor was Dr. Louise Dickson.

“That lady is an angel!” said Serra. “She believed in me.”

9-11

It was a clear day on September 11, 2001. Serra’s husband had just completed a long work shift when he arrived at their home. Sandy returned home later that morning from a local market, she heard the television blaring at top volume. She entered the room to find him watching news footage of the terror attacks. When she asked what was wrong, he said, “That’s the building where dad works.”

His father and her father-in-law worked for Wachovia Bank in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Serra rushed to school to pick up her daughter. The family left their home and gathered at her in-laws house in Queens Village, N.Y. Hours passed with no word. Late that evening, a knock came at the door. It was her father-in-law. He survived the attack and walked from lower Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Sandy Serra visited “the pit” at ground zero of the attacks where workers spent months removing debris. Years later, her father-in-law returned to the city with Sandy and her son on his birthday. It was his first trip back into Manhattan since the day of the attack. He found the names of colleagues who had perished that day enshrined at the new Freedom Tower building. Serra remembered that visit as a beautiful moment for the family.

“Life will take you places, it will either hurt you along the way or teach you lessons,” said Serra. “You either learn or stay hurt from life.”

Tennessee Reconnect

Serra applied for and received the Tennessee Reconnect Grant. Tennessee Reconnect works as a last-dollar grant that pays the remaining balance of tuition and mandatory fees after other state and federal financial aid have been applied. The Tennessee Reconnect grant opened a door that otherwise might have remained closed.

Tennessee Reconnect provides a way for eligible adult students to earn an associate degree, technical degree, or technical diploma at a community college or technical college.  For Serra, the grant meant someone invested in her.

Serra also praised the members of the Northeast State Foundation who support students. The scholarships also invest in students dedicating themselves to achieve long-term success in a career and in life. Students such as Sandy Serra who kept moving forward to achieve what they wanted to do.

“Somewhere out there, there is going to be another Sandy Serra,” she said. “Someone who is going to need the same aid, the same trust, for someone to count on them and trust them. I want another Sandy Serra to have that same chance and make her or his dreams come true.”