Best and Brightest: No Age-limit On Achieving One’s Dream, Conquering Fears

Patricia
Doty is far from the traditional college student. At 55, when most her age are
discussing retirement plans, she still has dreams, and one of them she recently
accomplished when she graduated with a master’s degree in vocational
rehabilitation from Winston-Salem State University, in North Carolina.

Doty was one of 297 non-traditional students
who graduated this past spring from the historically Black university, along
with 284 “traditional” students.

Growing up with a learning disability that Doty
said “back in those days they didn’t have a name for,” she never thought
this day would come so soon,  but through perseverance and
determination she made it happened.

 When Doty graduated from high school, in Vermont, she could barely read or
write. Because there weren’t any diagnostics tests available, Doty said as
a teen her disability was mistaken for laziness. She was put in “special”
typing and English classes for “slow students,” and was often isolated and
humiliated in front of her peers because of her slow leaning pace.

”A lot of people thought I was just lazy and did
not want to out forth this effort, and my mother thought I could do it, all I
had to do was put my head into it, and help [overcome] my fear.”

The fear Doty mentions is that of reading and
writing and at times it seemed that she would carry it on for life.  After high school Doty found an alternative
for the basic skills she lacked, working “hands on” with a career in
cosmetology. Though she was doing well in the field, her fear of reading and
writing took a toll and she never took the state board exams to become
certified.