101
Toward the turn of the year, from Nineteen Ninety-One to Two, Cindy
of VocRehab contacted me and told me of a job skills class at the
local 'Manpower' office. Given the date & time, I arrived and it
turned out to be more of a slide show on Manpower and their
involvement in the physical job contracting community. That might
sound a little nebulous, but I was afraid I'd get in trouble if I
said they seemed to have only jobs in the construction, plumbing, and
electrician fields. That's what it seemed to me at the time and
I decided to leave without signing up. One of their people noticed
this and intercepted me asking if I was going to sign up. I noted
that I was focused on the computer programming field and they didn't
seem to be involved in that. She agreed and asked if I had a degree,
I noted that while I had over a decade of hands-on experience, I only
had a few years of College and wished to complete my degree but my
Vocational Rehabilitation counselor was against that. While she
agreed Manpower was probably not the place for me, she did know of
another community resources group who might be able to help.
With the new name and address in hand I went there a couple days
later and signed up on the general intake wait-list and spent time in
the waiting area until I was eventually called. I talked with the
intake counselor and mentioned my past employment history, years of
health problems that were now behind me, and desire to finish my
degree and get a computer programming job. She thought that was a
great idea and asked if VocRehab had told me about the 'PASS Plan'?
As they hadn't, she explained Social Security's Plan for Achieving
Self Support option: It would
allow me to target some of my disability income toward a work related
goal, such as completing a college degree, and that
portion of my disability check would be reserved for that purpose.
With the reserved amount taken out of my monthly income, I would
qualify for alternative welfare payments to keep my monthly income
above a minimum level. Checking the numbers, it would only put me
back to the same income level I had when I moved into my first
apartment and as my current apartment had a lower rent, I could
effectively use my entire disability check of over five hundred
dollars toward college tuition and still be ahead in my monthly
budget! This seemed like a great idea and I said I wanted to
sign-up. She was willing to help, but I needed to first research the
exact numbers I needed for the classes.
I found I couldn't face the thought of returning to my former
Business College given the loss of five years and instead decided to
enroll at the local Community College. As we had our final science
fiction club meetings there I was familiar with the campus and the
idea tickled me to now go there to complete my education. Providing
my information they ordered a copy of my Business College transcript
and they would review it to see how many of my credits could be
transferred. Then they would know how many more classes I would need
to take with them to complete my degree. The following week when I
returned to discuss the results, the adviser was very dour as she
asked me to take a seat. As the Business College and the Community
College were not under the same accreditation system, they would only
accept about one percent of my credits toward a degree at the
Community College. I was slack jawed and couldn't accept that I
would essentially have to pursue a degree from scratch. But she
assured me that was how the system worked. I asked her what other
options I had and she simply said I should see if I could complete my
degree at the Business College.
Having to put pride aside, I
withdrew from the Community College and checked for the bus routes
that went to the business college section of town. As fate would
have it, there wasn't a bus that went directly to it, leaving me with
the closest bus stop being just shy of a half mile away from their
building. Still, as Spring was coming and soon after Summer, I could
imagine making that walk on a daily basis as part of attending
classes there. To test my theory, I took the bus and then made the
walk. While an uphill trek to
the school, it was only a modest rise and I would be making it fresh
at the start of the school day, and then have the gradual downhill
walk on the way back
to ease me to the bus stop. Arriving at the school building and
walking into the familiar main entrance I found I hadn't needed to
worry about returning here. As five years had passed since I had
withdrawn due to my health issues, there weren't any remaining
students who would recognize me, which would have placed me
in the awkward position of explaining where I had been for the past
half decade. Further, most all
of the office staff had changed over as well. While the headmaster
and his assistant where the same, they had since seen a sea of other
faces and mine had been lost in the waves.
Walking the halls to the office, I
was surprised by how fewer students there were. In the intervening
years other Business Colleges had opened in our town and the once jam
packed halls here were now half empty. At the office, they had since
built a reception desk to filter the incoming people and I greeted
the receptionist. A night student herself of both American and
German parents, she worked days at the College to make ends meet.
When I told her I was a former student looking to return after a few
years, I was allowed into the inner portion of the office to see
their adviser. Talking to her, it turned out their course curriculum
hadn't changed much which meant that, likely, all
of my credits would still
be good. She wouldn't know for sure until she received a copy of my
transcript from the main office out of state and I filled out and
signed the required paperwork. When I returned two weeks later, all
was good and their financial adviser found that I could just
afford three classes a semester using my PASS Plan budget combined
with Pell Grants which I would easily qualify for given my low income
level. While I could
take four classes a semester, I'd have to sign up for a student loan
to bridge the gap and as I'd already, unintentionally,
been released from my past student loans due to my health problems, I
didn't want to test my luck by letting them know I was now better
enough to return to school. Plans set and budget figured, I returned
to the community resource group to let my counselor know and she
helped me complete the forms to begin the Social Security PASS Plan
and make sure it was in place so I could return to College with the
summer semester.
When I next saw Cindy of VocRehab and excitedly told her about this
news, she was very angry with me as she had told me the
previous year NOT TO RETURN TO COLLEGE. She would have to check with
her supervisors to see if they should drop me as a client for
disregarding her advice. Leaving the appointment I felt it wouldn't
be any great loss given how little she had helped me in the preceding
year. Then I realized I would lose the free monthly bus pass they
had been giving me during that time. Yet with a little research at
the bus hub downtown I found that, as a student, I could qualify for
a discounted monthly bus pass of only ten dollars if I needed to. I
figured I could swing that.
I was soon called back to the Vocational Rehabilitation office. They
had decided to keep me but, as I had gone against my
assigned counselor's advice, they were transferring me to a new
counselor, 'Greg', who would be advising me from now on. It turned
out Greg was a huge fan of the idea of my completing College and
using the PASS Plan system to do it. Not only that, but VocRehab had
recently joined in a partnership with The University of Colorado and
their job placement people would be helping to find job opportunities
for me in the background while I was attending my classes at
College...
It turned out losing Cindy as my adviser was a huge stroke of
luck!
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