Trio of female veterans finds GTCC is the perfect place to pursue higher education after leaving the military
Published on: November 11, 2024
Shaylin Grady, Alexandra Harris, and Qualisha Trotter were all looking for the best possible place to build careers after serving in the U.S. military. All three women gravitated to Guilford Technical Community College and the Piedmont Triad. Neither has ever questioned the decision. In fact, all three consider it one of the best decisions they’ve ever made.
“I was kind of lost in the Medlin Center, looking for the Veteran’s Resource Center. I met the staff and knew I needed to keep in contact with everyone,” said Harris. “I hadn’t been to regular college in years. School was new to me again. The online classes were very new to me. I had a lot of questions, and they helped me along the way.”
Grady is an Army veteran. Harris served in the Navy and Trotter in the Air Force. They took different routes before arriving at GTCC. Harris, 32, has a degree from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and joined the Navy after completing that degree. Trotter, also 32, enlisted right out of high school, as did the 26-year-old Grady.
Grady, originally from Port Charlotte, Fla., was a combat engineer in the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed to Afghanistan for nine months. She served three and a half years before leaving the Army in 2019. She has lived in Greensboro for three years but is in her first semester at GTCC.
“After I got out of the Army at Ft. Bragg, I wanted to create my own independence and decided to stay in North Carolina. So, I picked a town in the state I liked when I visited that was close to the mountains and close enough to the beach,” said Grady.
Grady has also used the Veteran’s Resource Center and considers it a key to success in her transition back to the classroom.
“The staff in the Veteran’s Resource Center have always been so welcoming to me,” said Grady, who is enrolled in GTCC’s visual arts program and plans to transfer to a four-year school. “I was hesitant to use their tutoring service, but I needed help in my math classes, and they were great.
“I’ve taken a long break from high school to college, but I think I have this really good momentum and rhythm going now.”
Harris, who graduated from Greensboro’s Grimsley High School, earned a therapeutic recreation degree from UNCG in 2014, then opted to join the Navy.
“My goal in joining the Navy was to get more schooling. I wanted to become an occupational therapist (OT). I joined the military to help me get into the occupational therapist door,” said Harris.
It was a successful route for Harris. She completed an OT assistant program through the Navy, and despite a shoulder injury in 2017, she worked in the hand therapy department at the Camp LeJeune hospital. She received a medical discharge in 2022 because of the shoulder injury. She returned home to Stokesdale after separating from the service and began GTCC’s medical billing and coding program in August 2023, a less physical job in the same field.
“There are so many things about GTCC that I shockingly like,” said Harris. “I didn’t expect community college to be this hands-on. It helps me get through this major. This major is harder than I thought. My advisor and my classmates are really helping me get through this program.
“My advisors are always available. I always get email responses back quickly.”
Like Grady, Trotter searched for the perfect spot to relocate when she decided to enroll in college.
“I did some research and came up with Greensboro before I started college,” said Trotter, a Rocky Mount, Virginia, native. “It was far enough away from home that people just can’t pop into my place and close enough that I can go home when I need to.”
Trotter is a single mother and needed a degree program that would help guarantee career and financial stability. GTCC’s health information technology program was a perfect fit.
“I needed the financial stability, and I still get to work with people, still have the interaction with people,” said Trotter.
As a single mom, Trotter has occasionally run into scheduling conflicts. “Everyone is on a different schedule, the county school schedule doesn’t always match up to mine,” she said.
All three veterans agree that they’ve found more than they expected at GTCC and a huge part of that has been the support of the GTCC’s Veteran’s Resource Center.
“My transition back to the classroom wasn’t as tough as it could have been because everyone has been so accommodating,” said Trotter. “I’ve used the resource center several times, and they have always been so helpful. They helped me work on financial aid, and you can go in there anytime and jump on their computers. It’s certainly made a huge difference for me.”
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