MEET OUR GRADUATES: Jacqueline Carroll – “Adversity is Often Preparation for Greatness”

Jacqueline Carroll has spent almost half of her life in foster care. Her father battled with drugs and died in Kennedy Plaza when she was nine. Her mother died last year after years of drug use. This communication major has overcome incredible odds to graduate from Rhode Island College.

“I never thought I’d be a college student,” says Carroll. “从小到大，我们都不知道大学是什么. We were surrounded by people who felt lucky to graduate high school, who lived the same way their parents had lived – from assistance check to assistance check. I grew up in South Providence with my twin brother. 当我们可以, we skipped school because we just didn’t want to go and nobody was at home to say, ‘School is good for you’ or to help you with your homework.”

“My brother and I are fraternal twins,” she says. “成长, he had a learning disability – a very strong stutter, and I was the only one who could interpret what he was saying. 现在他说话几乎很流利了. But I spent a long duration of my life taking care of him, translating for him and protecting him.”

After being removed from the home at ages four and eight, Carroll and her brother were 的地方d with a permanent foster family in Cumberland at age 11. 这将是他们最后一个寄养家庭, but the transition from one way of life to another wouldn’t be easy.

“For the first time in our lives, we had structure,” she says. “We were learning things like how to make our beds in the morning. I remember going out shopping with my foster mother and telling her, 我眼里含着泪水, 我只想忘记一切. 我想忘记我从哪里来. And she said, ‘If you hadn’t had those experiences, you wouldn’t be who you are today.’ I owe a lot to this person who I now call my mother.”

卡罗尔于2020年开始在RIC读大一, when the COVID pandemic hit and classes had moved online.

“我有一个非常艰难的开始，”她说. “我有严重的注意力缺陷多动症. 尤其是精神障碍的注意力部分. I was undiagnosed, unmedicated and completely unable to focus.”

Carroll needed the in-class interactions between student and teacher, which is hard to get over Zoom. She needed the structure of hearing a lecture in person, and she missed the in-class banter with classmates before class starts.

“These are the social cues and interactions I rely on,” she says

结果，她的平均成绩直线下降. At one point, Carroll was facing academic dismissal. Her academic advisor, Professor Giselle Auger, fought hard for her to stay here.

还有在奥格找到冠军, the Office of Disabilities Services gave her permission to take extra time on tests, while the Counseling Center helped her with the emotional stresses of being a college student.

“At one point, I was going to the Counseling Center once a week,” she says. “这是一个巨大的帮助. Finally, I was medicated and able to focus better. My counselor got me through a lot of the hardships in my life by giving me the space to talk about them.”

大二的时候, she became an ambassador for RIC’s Office of 本科招生, which involves leading campus tours for prospective students and their families.

“Interacting with the other ambassadors was how I made friends,” she says. “We were also some of the first people to come back to campus after the pandemic. I felt more connected to the campus and I began to do better academically.”

在她的最后一个学期, 卡罗尔获得了希望奖学金, 这完全支付了她的学费. However, it was the fact that the 希望奖学金 is based on merit that meant the most to her.

“我从一个1.从大一的0分绩点到2分.大四的GPA是9分. 最重要的是，我要提前一个学期毕业. So, getting this scholarship has been validating. 我努力工作才来到这里.”

A few months before end of her last semester, she got the call that her mother had died. “在我妈妈去世之前，我过得很好. 它带回了很多东西，”她说. But Carroll refuses to give up the ground she has gained.

Author Andy Andrews once said, “Adversity is preparation for greatness.” If there’s one consistent thread that runs throughout Carroll’s life it’s the indefatigable drive to press on.

2023年12月毕业后, Carroll was hired as training coordinator for Leadership Rhode Island, 她在那里茁壮成长.