FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STUDENT SUCCESS SPOTLIGHT - January 2008

Jamaica L. Tarpley

First Year Studies

Danville Community College student Jamaica L. Tarpley of Dry Fork, constantly smiles and laughs heartily with every word she says. Despite the many challenges she has faced, the 27-year-old woman says she tries to always encourage others.

“You learn to keep moving, to keep going on, because life goes on,” says Tarpley, who is enrolled in DCC’s First Year Studies program. “I’ve had a lot of prayer through the years from my mother, grandmother, aunts and special friends. Today, I am a stronger, more positive, and more open-minded person.”

Tarpley explains that at age 12 she became a teen mother, but she stayed focused on her education by keeping up her grades, and managed to graduate on time from Tunstall High School with her class in 1998. Today, her daughter, Shamaica, is 14, and she finds herself juggling her daughter’s busy schedule with that of her own college work.

“It’s been rough going to school full-time, working part-time, and keeping up with my daughter who is involved in so many school activities,” Tarpley is proud of the fact that she and her daughter are both honor students.

Then, just two years ago, Tarpley’s life was devastated when she lost her mother, who perished in a house fire during the Christmas holidays. That event taught her to value life.

“That was quite a blow, but I knew I had to keep going. God does not put any more on us than we are able to stand,” she says.

Tarpley made the decision to come to DCC after attending John Tyler Community College in Richmond, where she was majoring in criminal justice. She came home after only one year of study and found a job working at a local grocery store. She later was employed by a pharmaceutical company in Greensboro. Now with an interest in pharmacy, Tarpley enrolled in DCC’s new Pharmacy Technician program. She completed the program in May 2006, earning a Career Studies Certificate.

She returned to DCC in fall 2006, and enrolled full-time in the First Year Studies program. After she graduates in May with her Certificate, Tarpley plans to return to DCC again in the fall to continue her studies for an associate degree and later to transfer and earn a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. She says she deliberated long and hard before deciding on this goal.

“I like people and this is what has led me to the nursing field,” she says flashing one of her infectious smiles again. “With a nursing career, at the end of the day you always feel like you have done something.”

Tarpley wants to pursue a nursing career, specializing in cardiac or renal/dialysis nursing. She is considering Virginia Commonwealth University, North Carolina A&T State University or the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as her transfer institution.

“I chose DCC because it is close to home, more convenient for me and it has an excellent faculty,” she says. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do exactly, so DCC gave me an opportunity to decide. I think it’s good to go to a community first anyway.

“DCC is a great school, especially the Science department – it’s really awesome,” she continues. “The faculty – Mr. (Ray) Herndon is very tough in anatomy, but when you leave DCC, you will have learned something. And that’s what’s most important.”

Tarpley is also very active on the DCC campus. She works part-time in the Office of Alliance for Excellence and Neighborhood Initiatives. She is a member of the Afro-American Culture Club and was a recent inductee into the DCC chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year college students.

“The best thing about DCC is its faculty and staff because I really get a lot of inspiration from them,” she says. “They are great. I can go and talk to any of them.”

In the community, Tarpley finds time to volunteer regularly with the Little Life Pregnancy Medical Center in Danville. She says it’s important to her to work with teen mothers so they can see there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Many young people I see think having a child is the end of the world. I want them to know that you can survive this,” she says. “I’ve been through what they are experiencing and I tell them, it will be alright. It’s molded me and I want to always give something back to help teenage mothers.”

What’s next for Jamaica Tarpley?

“I am going to write a book,” she laughs. “It will all be in there!”

For more information about DCC’s programs of study, contact Cathy Pulliam, Assistant Coordinator of Recruitment and Enrollment Management, at 434.797.8538, or click here.