Thank you, MawMaw!

I grew up in southern West Virginia in a small town named St. Albans (it’s about 30 minutes south of Charleston, West Virginia). My MawMaw and I lived in a four-room house with our dog Buffy, across from the railroad tracks. Our town food favorites were Tudor’s Biscuit World on the weekends for a “MaryB” or biscuits and gravy, and IGA was always known to serve a good hot dog.

I am one of many West Virginia children that grew up being raised by a grandparent. Did you know that today, over half of our children in West Virginia are being raised by a grandparent??My parents, both hard working, had me at a very young age. Due to our family circumstances, I was fortunate that I had a MawMaw that stepped right in to help raise me when I was a little girl and never missed a beat with my upbringing! I hope I’ve made her proud.

My MawMaw worked for the state capital in Charleston most of her career. She worked hard and was an Administrative Assistant. She caught the bus every morning and every evening, yet she always managed to have hot food on the table (and they were great meals—if you know Appalachian culture, you know we love our potatoes and meat!).

I remember many of our evenings together and cherish those memories. We would talk about her day at work and my day in school. I would play with my Barbies and talk about what’s happening with my friends or the next activity at our church. My MawMaw kept me engaged in so many activities—she made sure that I had a good childhood and she expressed that she wanted me to have “an easier life” than she had. As a child, I didn’t understand what she meant, but now I realize she was investing in my potential. Looking back, I see now how hard it was for her to provide for us. Those conversations about having a better life started when I was young and were frequent and ongoing. As I get older, my love for her grows, I’m humbled by the knowledge of how much my MawMaw sacrificed for me, and I take pride in how hard I’ve worked to make her dreams for me—her investment in my potential—come true.

College wasn’t part of her life, but she made sure it was part of mine. She graduated with a Typewriter Certificate, and I remember that she could type fast. She was proud of her job and of her work, but she wanted me to have a better job than her. She didn’t want me to have to take the bus every day to work, walk to the bus station to catch the bus, or worry about how we were going to pay for gas. She wanted me to have a career that would be able to support myself and my family and she instilled that belief—that we are each worthy of such a career—into me.

With all the (sometimes depressing) conversations about going to college that I continue to see on the local news and read about online, I can’t sit back any longer, nor can I remain silent! I am an Enrollment Management leader at Fairmont State University in Fairmont, West Virginia. As West Virginians, we are tenacious, we are resilient, and we are proud, hard-working people who love this state. We love each other, and our state is like family. It’s home.

As a West Virginian, I feel obligated to shout from the hollers and hills that we’ve got to do better. Did you know that fewer than 46% of our high school graduates in West Virginia attend college??This is a significant drop since COVID-19. West Virginia, our youth are smart, yet we’re ranked 50th for educational attainability in the nation when it comes to sending our high school students to college. When we tell our youth there is no point in going to college, do we understand what that means? Do we understand the impact that has on their lives, the economy, and on West Virginia?

We’re having a national conversation about the value of getting a college degree and I want to ensure that you know there is a return on investment (ROI) on getting a college degree.?Georgetown University Public Policy Institute found in 2020 that 65% of all jobs in the economy required a postsecondary education and training beyond high school.?We’ve watched the labor market shift in the last 20 years and there are projections that we will continue to see job openings in healthcare, STEM fields, communications, and analysis.?

The Economic Policy Institute found high school graduates in 2020 made $20.09 while graduates with a bachelor’s degree earned $36.84.? Education Data Hub states the 20-year ROI is 38.1% and a lifetime ROI is 287.7% over the course of their lifetime than those with a high school diploma and no college degree. Getting a college degree is worth it! It changed the entire trajectory of my life, led me to a career I love, and got me where I am today.

I know we can turn this around and our youth and state depend on it, but we need you! We need the MawMaws and PawPaws to encourage our youth to go to college. I want to be clear that I am a supporter of all our higher education institutions in the state and value the work that we do. Please, let’s value our education system, our teachers, our educators, and the higher education system. Encourage your grandkids to go to college—the future of West Virginia depends on it!?

Special thanks to Dan Shea for editing my first OpEd!

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