You're in good hands with Promise: Meet Teunna

By De'Shauna Hughes

The life of a college student is a hard, yet interesting lifestyle. College has a lot of ups and downs, but somehow college students find a way to be resilient and fight for their dreams. This is the same for Teunna Wallace, a first-generation college student at Mount Mary University, studying nursing. Teunna juggles school and working full-time at a local hospital in Milwaukee, WI. Although going to school and working full-time can be difficult, she handles them well with time-management. Because she works 12-hour shifts at the hospital, early mornings and long nights are not new to her.

Even though there are times where she is tired and just wants to rest, she thinks of her reasons as to why she’s working so hard and that is to graduate and become a nurse one day.

In her first year at Mount Mary, she fell upon a student organization called the Promise Program, by a former Promise Coach, Brooke McEwen. She wanted to join Promise because she knew it was going to be a tough transition from high school to college and because Promise sounded like a family.

“Our purpose in Promise is to provide a home away from home, but not to replace your family. Instead, we want to share knowledge on the one thing your family can’t help you with, and that’s navigating the complexities of being a college student.”

– Michelle Gabor, Learning Specialist

Promise has showed her the different aspects of college besides going to class and getting good grades. Through promise, she has learned about financial literacy and learned how to file her FAFSA, which are all things that are beneficial to a college student. Another thing that has been beneficial for Teunna while being in the Promise Program, are the coaches. The coaches provide an extra layer of support along with their initial support system at home.

Teunna was previously enrolled in the Nursing 1-2-1 program, where students attend their first and last years at MMU and the middle two years at MATC or WCTC. While studying at MATC, she was faced with many obstacles. Her coach at the time, Goldhmong Vang, was very helpful when she needed to vent or cry out her frustrations. Although her experience at MATC was difficult, she had Promise to fall back on and was still able to talk to her coach when she needed to.

Teunna would encourage people to join the Promise Program because “students can receive the support they need. Having a support system is co crucial to a college student because knowing that you people to lean on when the going gets tough brings value to what that student is trying to achieve.” Of course, you have your family and friends, but they don’t know or understand the pressure of being college student. So, being surrounded by people that are going through the same thing as you makes a student feel like they can push through and succeed. Teunna believes that the Learning Specialist, Michelle Gabor is the best component of the Promise Program. She’s very flexible with all forms of majors, especially when it comes to science and mathematics. Not only is Michelle a great tutor, but she’s part of her support system and confidant as well.

Teunna often looks back on what her college experience would have been like if she wasn’t in promise. Academically, if it wasn’t for Michelle, she would have suffered a lot academically, because Michelle is a really good tutor. She helped her management assignments, form outlines on what assignments she would finish for certain days and much more. Emotionally, she wouldn’t have had the tough skin she has without it. Looking back on things in high school and looking at her now, its like she’s different person because she grew up and understood the struggles and resilience behind college and life. Teunna describes Promise as “A very helpful, family-oriented community. Helpful because of the support that’s there. Family-oriented because sees the students all the time and feel close to them, especially those who she has never met before.”