Student Success Stories

  • Linnette smallServing Those Who Serve 

    Montgomery College Today, Spring 2009

    While recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from injuries he sustained in Iraq, U.S. Army Sergeant Calvin Linnette Jr. enjoyed an introductory drawing class at Montgomery College’s Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.

    United States Army Sergeant Calvin Linette Jr., 27, spent nearly a year fighting in Iraq, when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in July 2006. He suffered numerous injuries, but returned to duty after a short stay in the hospital. Three months later while his unit was on vehicle patrol in South Baghdad, another explosive device detonated. This time, Linnette suffered severe damage to his right leg, including several broken bones.

  • VandyFrom Combat to College 

    Insights, Spring 2009

    Shortly before navigating Montgomery College parking lots and wandering the halls of the Humanities Building, Sarah Vandy ’07 and Rebekke Sanchez ’08 were United States Army soldiers serving in Iraq. Vandy, a staff sergeant and Humvee mechanic on vehicle convoys, enlisted in the Army after high school and was immediately deployed to Bosnia. After seven years of active duty— including 15 months in Iraq—Vandy enrolled at Montgomery College and earned a spot in the College’s Macklin Business Institute. “I came into college having already developed a lot of skills and discipline in the military,” said Vandy, who has transferred to New York University’s Stern School of Business.

  • blackBranching Out 

    Insights, Spring 2008

    Steve Black ’05 grew up on a horse farm in Ohio. Every night around the dinner table, the family talked about the farm and its management. It was one way of life, but Black opted for another path. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon. At the University of Pittsburgh, he received a master’s degree in public and international affairs. With his education and experience, Black became an expert in national security policy and arms control.

    Throughout the 1990s, he worked at the United Nations, specializing in weapons inspections in Iraq. But he wanted to “settle down and do something different.” So Black turned to a career he knew well— farming. But starting a horse or dairy farm “from scratch was not appealing,” so he decided to start a tree farm because “horticulture is a huge and booming business in Maryland.” Around that same time, as he was looking for farms to purchase, Black started taking landscape technology classes at Montgomery College.

  • PowellRole Model 

    Montgomery College Today, Fall 2008

    The students filing in and out  of the Business, Management, and Information Sciences (BMIS) Learning Center at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus seek help for a variety of reasons. Some need help organizing their thoughts. Others need to learn how to study. Whatever the problem, Powell deals with each student one on one, giving them the tools, skills, support, and confidence they need to succeed in college and beyond. “I see a lot of myself in them,” says Powell. “When I hear students say they can’t do something, I believe that when they look at me, they say, “I can do it.”

  • LoziIf at First You Don’t Succeed

    Insights, Spring 2009

    Linda Lotzi ’08, a self-described reluctant returning student, earned a degree and a career in the federal government through hard work and the College’s Student Employment Services’ Workforce Recruitment Program.

    Giving up has never been part of Linda Lotzi’s pedigree, but she admits to throwing in the towel once while studying at Montgomery College. Just a few classes shy of earning her associate’s degree in general studies, she hit a roadblock in the form of constants, variables, and coefficients. For many adult college students, math courses are often the most challenging. For Lotzi ’08, algebra at the College was no exception.

  • SchlonerCare Package 

    Insights, Fall 2008

    Carmen Schloner ’97 considers helping others to be second nature. Since moving to the United States from Costa Rica, she has been helping friends and acquaintances with translating, job hunting, housing, and even health issues. In 2002, she made her charitable nature official by founding the non-profit Caridad, Inc., “to help single mothers and their families with guidance to live a better life and to get ahead.”

    Schloner has her own experience with the difficulties of being a single mother. For years, she worked multiple jobs while trying to support herself and her children. Over a period of eight years, she earned a computer science degree at Montgomery College by attending part time. Now remarried and working full time for Computer Packages, Inc., the patent and trademark management company that sent her to MC, she spends her spare time helping other moms in difficult situations.

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