Major impact
The time stamp on the text message was 5:15 a.m. on Jan. 1.
“Hey, I know it’s late,” the text from the young woman started. She was in need of assistance with her financial aid paperwork.
“Thank you so much,” the message read. “Happy new year.”
It wasn’t the first middle-of-thenight text Felicia Orr has received from one of her students.
The Shelby County resident has mentored more than 100 college students over the last seven years through tnAchieves. She began during the program’s inaugural year, taking on 35 students the first year. She now has about 10 new students each year.
That’s on top of the ones who have already graduated who still contact her — in the middle of the night or otherwise.
“I feel like I have a lot of young people who are just depending on me,” Orr said.
The program provides mentors for the Tennessee Promise free college program, in which students have to meet with a mentor and complete community service each semester to receive free tuition to community or technical college. But it’s been around longer than the Promise program, initially created to provide support for low-income and first-generation students.
Orr said the commitment usually just requires sending text and email reminders or encouragement and being available as students have questions.
“They’re looking for people who have answers,” she said.
Orr knows what that feels like. She was one of four children, their moth-
Jennifer Pignolet
er a hospital monitor technician and their father a crew leader with Memphis Light, Gas and Water.
Orr and her siblings were the first generation in their family to go to college.
“My mom said, ‘I see how they treat people without degrees, and I want my children to have a better opportunity,’ “Orr said.
She graduated from Freed-Hardeman University with a degree in communications. But she remembers what it was like to be on a college campus without knowing anyone, and with parents who were encouraging but didn’t necessarily know how to help her navigate campus life.
She said she was thankful to meet people along the way to guide her.
“That made a big difference for me,” Orr said.
Now, many of her students are also the first in their families to go to college.
“It’s rewarding,” she said of helping those students in particular who lack an adult with college experience to guide them. “You have the opportunity to make them feel comfortable asking any and all type of questions.”
Even parents who are college graduates often have a hard time navigating the financial aid process, Orr said. Luckily, she’s uniquely qualified to help in that department.
Orr is the outreach coordinator for Tennessee Student Assistance Corp., which handles financial aid for the state.
It was through that role she first heard about tnAchieves when it formed.
“I automatically wanted to help,” she said.
Graham Thomas, deputy director of outreach for tnAchieves, said Orr is one of just eight or so volunteers in Shelby County who have been with the program since its inception.
He called her a “rock star” who is always positive and volunteers to work with students at some of the most challenging high schools in Memphis.
Thomas said given Orr’s financial aid background from her day job, she’s the go-to person whom even tnAchieves staff members can turn to when they have questions. “She’s just a great partner in our work all the way around,” he said.
The program currently needs 500 more mentors in Shelby County by Nov. 30 for next year’s Promise students, who are currently high school seniors.
Orr said she advocates for other adults to be part of the program, and one of the first questions they ask is if she’s a volunteer as well.
“I have to lead by example,” she said.
She encourages her students to access resources available to them in their college’s student center, to talk to their professors and to advocate for their needs. Some students with disabilities, she said, don’t speak up.
“A lot of times people are afraid because they don’t want to be stigmatized,” Orr said.
She hears from her students in waves, usually a lot during their first weeks of college and during financial aid season. And if she doesn’t hear from them, she’s not afraid to give a “gentle nudge.”
After seven years, she’s watched her students go on to graduate and start families. One former student is now in medical school.
“It makes me feel good,” she said, adding that at the same time, “it makes me feel like I’m getting older.”
But she’s determined to keep going, because she sees a strong need for leaders in Memphis to support students.
“As long as the need is there, I’ll keep going,” she said.
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.