For this month’s graduate spotlight, I decided that our older grads need a little “UB – Appropriate” love too. As I considered who I wanted to feature, I was eager to find someone who was served during my first few years of working for TRiO. For this newsletter, I am excited to introduce 2004 Central Graduate, Claire Redmond. Although Claire was served by the program nearly 7 years ago, she definitely left her mark and deserves the spotlight!During her freshman year at Central High School, Claire joined the St. Olaf College Upward Bound program. Back in 1999-2000, the Central recruiter was Kevin Cheatham. Fortunately, I am still in contact with Kevin and was able to ask him about Claire’s start with the program. Not only did Kevin remember Claire, he had a lot to say about her early days in TRiO:”What I remember about Claire was her ability to get along with most anyone and her sense of humor; the laugh stands out.  Claire was (and probably still is) definitely not afraid to speak her mind, but she did it in a way that didn’t cause hurt feelings.  Claire was able to see the positive in most any situation.  She was a hard worker, and pretty focused on what she wanted to accomplish both during her time at Central and beyond.”

It was great catching up with Claire and I will leave you with her advice for current UB students, “My advice is, if you don’t get a lot of scholarships for college, go to a community college for a couple of years, then transfer to a more accredited college or university to graduate from. It doesn’t really matter how you get to graduation, so you might as well save money doing it.”After graduating from Central and from UB, Claire went on to study at Hamline University. While in college, she was involved in Habitat for Humanity and graduated in 2008 with a BA in Business Management. When asked what Claire’s favorite UB memory was, she stated, “pretty much all of the talent shows are my favorite memories from UB.” She then informed me that her favorite memory from college is her graduation day!

As always, it is nice to hear from our alum and we plan to continue “Spotlighting” them each month. Stay tuned for more success stories to come…