For local students, RIC diploma a symbol of hard work, perseverance
Cumberland resident Laura Hill came from a family of teachers and police officers. But her mother's breast cancer diagnosis 4½ years ago forever altered her plans of following in her family's footsteps.
Hill was attending Community College of Rhode Island and was thinking of becoming a teacher, taking one or two general education courses at a time. However, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer nearly five years ago, and Hill said she “met a lot of people along the way who made the experience much better for my mother and family.” That's when she decided she wanted to switch her career focus to medical imaging and she began taking classes at Rhode Island College.
A33-year-old with four children in a blended family, Hill said that RIC offered better job placement opportunities, as most employers are seeking candidates with a bachelor's degree. Additionally, once she enrolled at RIC, she came to the realization that “it is hands down the best program for medical imaging.”
However, the road to Saturday's graduation and Hill's degree in medical imaging with a concentration in magnetic resonance imaging was far from easy. She ended up with more than 1,400 hours in 16 months of
clinical training, amounting to roughly 32 hours a week while at the same time balancing regular classes, studying, and raising her children.
“It was almost impossible at some points,” Hill said as she looks back. “I had a lot of support from my husband and family, that alone made it possible. The hardest for me was the mom guilt of leaving my kids for that long and not providing anything for them financially.”
However, the program had its share of benefits, as Hill says that it prepared her for the field and got her working with people who would one day be offering her a job.
After passing her upcoming board exams on May 16, Hill will begin working at Rhode Island Medical Imaging as an MRI technologist. Graduating summa cum laude, Hill was also awarded the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Certificate of Excellence.
“It's exciting, all that hard work pays off,” she said. “It totally makes it worth it. I've shown my kids the time and effort you put into it can change grades. I missed out on some fun things but it's important for me to do well and I hope it rubs off. The harder they work, they'll end up getting somewhere.”
Hill's children include a four-year-old daughter, 12year-old son, 15-year-old daughter, and a 20-year-old daughter – Kailee – who just finished her sophomore year at RIC.
While the mother and daughter tandem were RIC students at the same time, very rarely did they cross paths on campus. “Surprisingly, we always ended up going on different days,” she said.
As a 33-year-old, Hill jokes that she “always felt like the old lady in class,” but she said the medical imaging department made it easier to be able to juggle home life and school, saying “it was definitely all worth it.”
Just before Saturday's com-mencement ceremony, Hill said “I'm so excited, I didn't walk for high school graduation, so I feel like I owe this to my parents.”
“I'll be thinking about this, making my parents proud, showing my kids that hard work pays off and it's all worth it,” she said.
IN THE YEARS leading up to college, Lincoln resident Jill Mennucci was unsure of what she'd major in or what career she'd like to have after graduating. By her own admission, she was “all over the map with career choices,” considering physical therapy, speech, and psychology. “You name it, I considered it.”
However, it took a handson experience as a youth gymnastics coach to make her realize that her future was working with children.
“Once I started coaching, I thought ' I really enjoy this, I could see myself doing this forever,'” Mennucci, 21, said. “I knew I wanted to do early childhood from when I started coaching gymnastics. I found that I love working with the little ones.”
Mennucci went to school at Pawtucket's St. Theresa School and St. Mary’s Academy Bay View in East Providence. She said her familiarity with Catholic education made her somewhat apprehensive to go to a public college, to the point that she was still undecided on college past the traditional May 1 deadline, but the programs at Rhode Island College captured her attention.
Mennucci in fall 2013 enrolled in the early childhood education program at RIC and has said that it's been a fantastic experience for her since then, from the professors in her courses to the student teaching experience that she called “life-changing.”
Mennucci did her student teaching at Raymond LaPerche Elementary School in Smithfield alongside kindergarten teacher Lauren Paolino. She said that the experience “confirmed that I’d chosen the right place, the right setting.”
Mennucci observed for the first week and then gradually began taking on additional subject areas before having total control of the class for the final six weeks. She also met with parents and school personnel, saying that doing the job was “so fantastic” and that Paolino was an “incredible, great mentor.” Mennucci this fall will return to LaPerche Elementary as a long-term substitute teacher.
“What really gets me is the growth in those early grades, to see them make that kind of progress, the growth from January to now, they're different people,” she said of her students. “They learn something new every day, they love to learn and explore, and I love to guide them through that process.”
“Kindergarten is where my heart is, it's a big season of transition, to guide and be that support for them academically, socially, emotionally, getting them to that point is what's most incredible for me,” she added.
Saturday's graduation for her was an exciting experience, saying that as recently as a few years ago, she wasn't sure she'd even attend the ceremony. She initially thought commencement would be “so long and boring,” but with the amount of work she put into her education, she said “I'm definitely going up on stage … I worked too hard not to.”
Mennucci is the winner of the Sister Mary Francis Ryan, R.S.M. Early Childhood Award, which is given to a graduating senior who exemplifies enthusiasm and dedication to teaching in early childhood education and who has demonstrated leadership, according to RIC officials. She also won the 2016 Student Honor Roll Award and the 2017 Cap and Gown Award for the Early Childhood Education Program.
In addition to her longterm substitution job, Mennucci this fall will attend RIC to begin the master’s program in early childhood special education. Mennucci said that she previously worked for the Pawtucket School Department as a childhood outreach screener for ages 3 to 5, able to see how children are identified for special needs and ensuring they receive the right services.
As for what separates RIC from other institutes of higher learning, Mennucci said “at other schools, it felt like you were just a number. At RIC, that's not the case. They want you to be you and value you as a person.”
KAREN RAMIREZ, 25,
OF CENTRAL FALLS, a first-generation Latina-American, was the first in her family to graduate from college as she strode across the stage at the Dunkin' Donuts Center to receive her diploma.
Ramirez grew up in Central Falls, and during her college application process while in her senior year at Central Falls High School, she came across Rhode Island College's Prep Enrollment Program, which covered her housing and room and board, lowering the cost of secondary education for her.
“That really lowered the cost for me, it made it very affordable coming from Central Falls and a working class family,“she said. “Thankfully, RIC offered an affordable option for me.“
Her path to graduation was very challenging, Ramirez said, as her mother was a teacher in Guatemala and was always very encouraging of her education. Her father, who worked in manufacturing, also had her back and supported her through her schooling. However, their house was nearly foreclosed on and her father passed away during her sophomore year at RIC, which Ramirez says “put a lot of weight on my mom.”
A secondary education English major with a minor in Portuguese, Ramirez has visions of becoming a teacher with the goal of giving back to the community. She said that she wants to work in the Central Falls, Pawtucket, or Providence communities, saying she believes she has a “very interesting standpoint since I am from the neighborhood and still live in Central Falls.”
“I'm so excited to work with students from the same neighborhood, to share stories and hopefully inspire them,” she said. “One of my biggest goals is, even if I make the smallest little goal, for them to pursue college.”
Ramirez hopes to be the inspiration on future generations that Central Falls High English teacher and RIC alumna Deloris Grant was for her.
“Seeing her helped me see myself as a teacher,” Ramirez said. “She's also a minority … In schools and education, there's less than five percent Latino or Hispanic teachers, we have a huge deficit in the education program. Seeing somebody who is also a minority in the classroom is so powerful to me because it makes me believe, you're able to see yourself in them.”
Grant, she said, is a “powerful strong woman … she knows what they endure, what they went through, working class families. Her knowing these factors helped me succeed in her class but also to see it is possible to become a teacher even though I came from such a poverty-stricken city that has been marginalized for a while.”
She is the winner of this year’s Jennifer S. Cook Award, given to a graduating senior English/education major who embodies the characteristics of a teacher as demonstrated by Cook, a teacher and writer who saw her work as a calling.
Thinking about her approaching graduation, Ramirez said “Wow, it's going to be a dream come true.”
“I've been working so hard for so long. Seeing that finally happen, I’m going to be so excited. To see all the hard work come to life and I hope I redeem my father, I’m very excited about that,” Ramirez said.