Student Profile

Katherine Riley

            My name is Katherine Riley and I am a student in the human services/social services concentration program at PCC. I have been CARE President for three years,  and will graduate in May. I hold two positions President and SGA Representative. I started college in 2003 at UNC Pembroke as a special education and religion major, I transferred to ACC in 2005 and received my Associate in Arts in 2007. I still wanted to be a teacher, that was my childhood dream to be able to make a difference in a child’s life. Unfortunately, I could not transfer to the school I wanted; I started taking classes at PCC with the intentions to pull my GPA up so I could transfer to the school I wanted. However, it did not work that way, with in probably a semester I fell in love with the program and care and have been here ever since. I have been very vocal in CARE and the Human Services Program for the past threes, because I believe in the importance of it. I know first hand, how it can change you. I believe that everyone has inside them the ability to make a difference, we are just wired that way, but sometimes people do not use that ability. If you take a human services class like child abuse and neglect for example, or even intro to human services, by the end of the semester something inside of you will change.  Some of the material we learn in the program is not going to be easy it is not meant to be. What it is meant to do is to enhance the skills we already have, teach us new skills, educate us and prepare us for a career in human services and life in general.

            I have stated this in the past in newsletters and at meetings, but for new students I want to share with you a not so secret that people such as Cheryl, Toni, and past graduates know. Kathy Oakley, and Sheri Narin, are not only for me my professors and my adivisor they are my mentors. They will be your biggest supporter and advocate that you will ever have at PCC or probably in general. They believe very passionately about what they are teaching. During your semester you may feel like giving up, or that you can not do it, but as I stated before something inside you will change. Things will start to make sense, they will start to click  for you and that is because of Kathy and Sheri. When someone believes so deeply in what they are doing, that they are doing it not because of the money or not because they love to teach but because they love helping people it not only changes something inside there students but creates a domino affect. After a semester, I got what Sheri and Kathy were teaching, I understood completely that in whatever field I chose inside of human services or in general that I could make a difference. I had lost faith in myself and in my abilities, and because of Sheri and Kathy that has changed for the better.

Good luck with your classes this semester.