FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STUDENT SUCCESS SPOTLIGHT - October 2006

Dawn Frazier

Business Management - Marketing Specialization

            Dawn Frazier of Dry Fork lives by the motto, “people need to move on.”

            “People can’t worry about what they did have or where they used to work; they need to accept change as positive and try to make the best of the situation because life is too short,” says Frazier, the 59-year-old mother of two and grandmother of four.

            After 35 years at Dan River, Inc., Frazier says her job “went east,” and she went back to school. She is enrolled in Danville Community College’s Business Management – Marketing Specialization program, using benefits from the Trade Adjustment Assistance Reform Act of 2002 (Trade Act).

            The Trade Act is a federal program established under the Trade Act of 1974 that provides aid to workers who lose their jobs or whose hours of work and wages are reduced as a result of increased imports. The program offers a variety of benefits and reemployment services to help unemployed workers prepare for and obtain suitable employment. Workers may be eligible for training, job search and relocation allowances, income support, and other reemployment services.

“I was offered the chance to come back to school,” adds Frazier. “I was given a (career assessment) test and was told that I would be a good persuader. So, Business Management – Marketing, here I come!”

Frazier worked in production for 18 years and then in planning and scheduling for 17 years at the Division IV Finishing Mill at Dan River, Inc.

            “The production was a difficult job, and it was hard to move up at Dan River,” says Frazier. “But I did move up, and the planning and scheduling position allowed me to work with more people. It was challenging, but I managed to keep that job for almost 20 years.”

Frazier says she was laid off from Dan River, Inc. in October 2004 and began school that same month in the middle of the semester. She smiles and says that she enjoys being a college student.

            Actually, Frazier has always wanted to pursue a college education. After she graduated from high school in 1965, she attended DCC, when it was a branch of Virginia Tech, but her college education became too expensive for her family’s budget. Later, she got married, had children and found a job. So, Frazier says that her dream of a college education was put on the “back burner.”

            “I look at this opportunity as a blessing, because I always wanted to take college courses,” Frazier explains. “There are so many things that I am interested in and just so many questions that I want to ask!”

            For a woman who has never owned a computer before, has purchased one and says that it’s vital for her schoolwork, especially her online course.

            “I never had the need to own a computer, but now it is so helpful,” adds Frazier. “I thought learning to operate the computer would be difficult, but I learned that you have to ease into things and slowly update your skills. I don’t want to get left behind.

            “I have a daughter-in-law who graduated from college with honors and a nephew who has earned his Ph.D.; I have to live up to the family standard,” Frazier adds.

            Her grades have certainly lived up to the “family standard,” and last year she was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society for college students.

            Frazier has a definite interest in real estate, also. She hopes her education will help her to pursue work with a real estate company dedicated to preserving historical buildings or museums.

            Yet Frazier worries that a prospective company may not be as competitive in the job market. But she realizes that she has to move on in her career and says that DCC’s encouraging staff and faculty have been a tremendous help.

“I will be a 60-year-old woman with a degree when I graduate next year,” adds Frazier. “I will have to compete with many younger people. I do worry that a company may not take a risk and hire me, even though I will have a degree.”

“She is a model for nontraditional students,” says Vincent Decker, Associate Professor of Business Management at DCC. “Although she was reluctant about her situation, she made the best of it with a positive attitude.”

For more information about the Business Management program, and its specializations, contact the Business and Engineering Technologies Division at 434.797.8474.

For more information, contact: aburney@dcc.vccs.edu

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