WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
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| It is always a bonus to have
former students come back to their Alma Mater, particularly when
they can be as valuable a role model to students as Darian
Gatling is. This HCC "success story" visited the
campus welding shop recently to speak to the students. |
A Success Story….
Halifax Community College is in the business of changing lives –
for the better.
Take Darian Gatling, for example. Darian is currently enrolled at
Elizabeth City State University where is a senior. He was the youngest
of five children. He started out here at HCC in the welding department
– straight from high school at Northampton County HS East. "I had
had some welding in high school and I liked it," said Darian.
Following the successful completion of the welding program, Darian
moved into the HCC Industrial Maintenance Technology program and earned
an associate degree. "My GPA never dropped below 3.1 at HCC,"
Darian boasted. He transferred to ECSU in 1999 and will graduate with a
BS degree in Industrial Technology with a concentration in Electronics
in May! Now he is spending a great deal of his time trying to get into
graduate school at A & T.
"I want to get my masters in electrical engineering," he
said. "I would love to teach. I want to help others succeed and
have the opportunities that I have had," he said.
This could be the end of a great success story – but it's not.
With his permission, you need to know something else about Darian.
"My high school teachers said I wouldn't make it past high
school," Darian told me. Because of complications and injury at
birth, Darian developed spina bifida and a mild version of hydrocephalus
(though not detect-able to the average person.) "I have some speech
problems." (Darian talks quite rapidly, but with frequent reminding,
he has learned to slow down.)
"Even My doctor told me when I was young that chances are I would
not be able to walk… I hate being told what I can't do!
" I have had problems all of my life, but I
have managed to meet the challenges enough to compete," he concluded.
Darian could, indeed, compete! According to his former welding
instructor, Wayne Dickens, Darian was a dedicated student who took the
good advice he gained from his educational experiences seriously. Once,
Mr. John Glover, of Glover Construction Co. Inc., a very successful
business man from Pleasant Hill, offered advice to Dickens' students
when they toured his business, "If you have a good attitude, do a
good job and do that good job everyday, you'll be assured of
success."
Dickens said that Darian is a walking example of this wise adage. But
in short, never say, "I can't."
-Patsy Ferguson- |
