Stories about Students

Kelly Vasta's story

Traveling three weeks out of every month was not the life Kelly Vasta wanted. As a meeting planner for a major corporation, Kelly had a career many people would love, but Kelly wanted more control over her life and time to spend with her daughter.

She enrolled in the Surgical Technology program at Aims Community College. That wasn't as easy as it sounds. Kelly was the first person in her family to go to college and she was nervous about fitting in and being able to keep up in the classroom.

"But it felt good just stepping on campus," she said. "From the first person I talked to about registration, everyone has been so friendly and helpful."

The classrooms were the same way. "Not everybody was 18 years old. As a non-traditional student, that's important," she said. "I'm also a person who needs a lot of care and handling in class and I got that here. The instructors are wonderful."

In particular, Kelly connected with Maxine Obleski. "She worked so hard to help me understand the material," Kelly said.

"I was really afraid of being one of 300 students in a lecture hall. But the small class size here is so amazing," she said. "And I had heard from other people who went to bigger schools that some classes are taught by grad students instead of professors, but that's not the way it was here."

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