by Diana Scott

Jeana Biondo

"I wouldn't recognize myself from last year," says Jeana Biondo, SGO representative, student aide, and a 4.0 student at Carroll Community College. Home- schooled for the past eight years, Jeana is the eldest of the five children in her family. Last summer she was a shy 16-year old trying to get into college to complete her education. A resident of Hanover, Pennsylvania, she first tried to gain admittance to the Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) in Gettysburg to no avail. Anyone under the age of 18 had to score 1100 on their SAT in order to be admitted. Jeana had a 1070. Moving on to the next closest college, Jeana discovered Carroll's open admissions policy allowed her to enroll and a work-study position provided her with funds to partially offset the out-of-state tuition charges.

"This was not an easy year for me or my mom," explained Jeana. "It was probably one of the most stressful years of our lives because I couldn't drive and my mom had to bring me to the college every day." Once Jeana had her license and her first semester grades were in, she began to feel more certain about her future at Carroll.

She credits her student worker jobs with her swift involvement in campus life. "Not only have those jobs taught me new skills and instilled a sense of responsibility in me, they also provided me with the ability to integrate work and study hours into each day. The jobs also made me feel surer of myself because I felt more competent; I knew things that were occurring at the college before they happened. I found that I had planned my work and study time so well, I had extra time to invest, so I decided to join the Student Government Organization (SGO) for a purely selfish reason—so it would look good on my resume." Jeana's initial reason for joining the SGO faded as her involvement grew. She was elected an SGO representative, a job that broadened her horizons to include weekly meetings, service projects, leadership conferences and multiple experiences in public speaking.

"My advice to incoming students would be to get involved in campus activities; don't just let life go by, live it." Jeana has blossomed over the last year by following her own advice.

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