For Students & Alumni

Nicole Whiting: West Virginia, Regis University '01 Workshop
“Drop out,” “GED,” and “Technical school” were words that swirled around Nicole Whiting’s future since the second grade. That year, she was diagnosed with a learning disability that made spelling and grammar challenging. Afterwards, Nicole was separated from her peers and placed in special education courses.

Even though she took only two special education courses, her classmates and teachers were not impressed with her scholastic achievement. According to some of them, she was taking “easy courses” and her grades “didn’t count.” Nicole remembers at one time asking her high school English class teacher, “Why aren’t we reading literature books (instead of grammar books), like everyone else in our grade?” In her teacher’s eyes, she saw the answer-- she didn’t need to read college preparatory material if she wasn’t going to college.

During Nicole’s junior year, guidance counselor Kackie Eller, noticed her potential and became Nicole’s new ally. Ms. Eller pushed her to attend a College Summit Summer Workshop at Regis University in Colorado (2001) ---far away from her home in West Virginia.

Nicole found the workshop challenging, particularly with her disability, but she found joy in discovering a space where she could share her story with a group of students like herself. While starting her Common Application and structuring her essay were things that most students at her high school would take for granted, for Nicole this represented a tremendous accomplishment, a day she never thought would come.

With the help of people like Kackie Eller and College Summit staff, Nicole was accepted to 10 universities. In May 2007, Nicole will graduate from Marshall University where she double majors in criminal justice and sociology with a minor in history.

Although she is working hard to graduate from college, Nicole comes back year after year to support College Summit. This past summer she worked as a workshop coordinator and hopes to be a College Summit fellow. If she could share one thing with future Peer Leaders she says it would be: “Whatever happens, happens…life isn’t always going to be great, but it’s what you do with it that matters.”