Jessica LeAnn Johnson

Five years toward a degree isn’t what most college personnel have in mind when they think of success.  Leann Johnson’s success at NPCC and in life confronts the usual thinking about who should be in college and who can succeed.  At the end of 10th grade, Leann left school to give birth to her son.  By the time she received her GED at 17, she was a single-parent, living on her own, receiving every type of government assistance.  She was poor; she was young; and she was determined to go to college.

For a year and a half, while raising a toddler and living on welfare, life moved smoothly for Leann.  She earned excellent grades in her developmental coursework; she excelled in math (completing Intermediate and College Algebra in one semester); and she was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa.  In the fall semester of 2001, she began working as a math tutor in the LAD math lab and was a Student of the Month.  That same semester, she decided to go to a four-year university in another part of the state.

So, Leann moved to another place and began her new life as a university student.  In short order, the demands of her school work, the pressures of single parenting, and the loneliness of being in a new location without resources left Leann exhausted and disheartened.  In May, 2003, pregnant and at the end of her energy, Leann made a very wise choice:  she would abandon her pursuit of a four-year degree. 

For many young women, this would be the end of the story, but Leann Johnson has always been a determined young woman.  The summer after her fateful decision about university, she returned to NPCC for summer classes.  Confined to bed rest prior to the birth of her second son, she still completed Spanish, World Literature, US History, and Information Systems I that summer.  In Spring, 2005, at age 23, she was accepted into the Radiography Program.  She continued to work as a math tutor for the LAD until her graduation. 

Today, thanks in part to the support she received following her return to NPCC, Leann is a PRN and back-up interventional radiography technician at St. Joseph’s Mercy Health Center.