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RETIRING DEAN MADE IMPACT ON STUDENTS NEEDING HELP

JAMESTOWN - Amos and Beatrice Lewis had high educational expectations for their only child when daughter Jacqueline was growing up in Clearwater, FL.

She never disappointed them. "My parents had positive images of themselves. I grew up in a home where there was a strong sense of worth. My father was my inspiration," said Jacqueline Lewis Pettiford of High Point.

Pettiford has used that "strong sense of worth" to help thousands of students during the 28 years she has spent at GTCC. She will retire as the college's dean of student support services on Feb. 1. In this role she has been responsible for Admissions, the Assessment Center, Advising Center, Counseling Services, Student Life and the Student Government Association.

Among her many duties has been to handle discipline for students. A thankless job, perhaps, but one in which Pettiford excelled, said her co-workers. "She spent many hours with students and parents to change behavior," said retired GTCC vice president Dr. Kathy Baker Smith. "The college benefitted greatly from her tact and her toughness in those situations," Smith said.

"She had the opportunity to see the other side of the educational environment, those students who find themselves in trouble because of something they have done," said Dr. Alison Wiers, associate vice president for student success. "Her guidance has helped make positive change in many lives over the years," Wiers said.

"She is a student advocate that has their best interest at heart," said Berri Cross, director of student life. "She provides an even tempered reaction to anything given to her whether it is good news or bad. She models what we all wish we could do in any given situation," Cross said.
Pettiford has had "a great relationship" with student government officers through the years, Cross said. "They never felt she was an administrator that could not be approached," she said.

Smith said that Pettiford "hasn't gotten enough credit" for leading a committee that started the Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR) program. "SOAR was one of the most effective things we did in Achieving the Dream, and was essential in making registration go more smoothly," Smith said. GTCC is one of 22 community colleges across the nation selected for the innovative Achieving the Dream program,   which helps identify problems that prevent students from succeeding - particularly low-income students and students of color.

Smith headed the ATD effort by the GTCC staff and faculty, which "revolutionized the culture at the school," according to Dr. William Trueheart, CEO of Achieving the Dream in Washington.

Pettiford said, "The college has changed not only in size since I started here but it also is more diverse. There were very few minority students here when I came to work." Now more than half of the 15,000-plus students at GTCC are minorities.

Being raised in the South, Pettiford attended segregated public schools; and also earned a degree in history from Fisk University. She later received her master's degree from N.C. A&T State University.
Both of her parents had Master's Degrees, and her mother was a trustee at St. Petersburg Junior College., now St. Petersburg College.

Pettiford said that attending a historically black college was her choice. "I got a good education at Fisk. We had great teachers who demanded excellence," she said. Becoming an educator wasn't a profession she thought of when she went to college. "I headed to college to become a physician but I hated being in labs all of the time. I was more of a social person," Pettiford said.
As fate would have it, her only daughter, Dr. Crystal Yeldell of Bowie, MD, became the physician in the family. Jacqueline and husband James Pettiford also have a son, Jahmal Pettiford, who works at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.

"I don't have any definite plans in retirement. I like reading and scrapbooking but I can't see myself doing that all of the time," so I am sure I will provide volunteer services. I also want to become more politically active at the local level," she said.

Naturally, she expects to see more of her four grandchildren. And she owns her home place in Florida where she and husband James - retired director of High Point Human Relations Commission -- can visit at their leisure.
"I will not be at a loss for things to do," she said.
"My future possibilities are only limited by my imagination which is unlimited," she said.

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Contact: ROBurchette@gtcc.edu (Released 1/24/12)