My Incredible Community College Experience with Houston Community College – The Egalitarian

My experience here at HCC Northline has been filled with community, kindness, and triumph! I’m Tammarious Scott, a student here at HCC, a member of their honors program, and a recipient of the Houston Association of Black Journalists award. I’m finishing up my second year here at college and I’m excited to be able to use the experiences from my post-secondary education to become an adult.

I graduated from Cypress Falls High School Suma Cum Laude through devastating personal hardships. After graduating, I felt lost as to where life would take me, or even if I would go to college. That’s when I was approached by my incredible supervisor, the future Dr. Carolyn Cross. Ms. Cross gave me the opportunity to come study at Houston Community for free with a cohort of other scholars! Imagine my excitement to discover that I would be joining a supportive and loving cohort that treats me like family, with a free education to succeed in my career!

My journey began in fall 2022 with a small group of fellow students who all had dreams to achieve. We spent the first semester mixing and supporting each other during our first real college classes. Starting with the four normal full-time courses, college seemed like a breeze. Almost like a second half of high school, the comfortable feeling of finishing my work with little effort gave me false confidence about how the year would go. My birthday was in October and since I had the most exhilarating birthday party thrown by my wonderful cohort, I have started to be much more lenient about my efforts in the classroom. Everything was going well until the second semester, when I started feeling exhausted already. I had a difficult semester academically equipping myself with the right resources to continue better.

Fortunately, thanks to the kind HCC advising staff, the guidance of Director Cross, and the support of my second family, I was able to make a big turnaround in my academic work. College became a breeze again, and study sessions with friends and meetings with professors slowly began to propel me to where I needed to be.

Two years into HCC experience and I feel like a whole new person. Participating in serving the local community around me, a journey taking me to a country I would never have seen myself in and meeting people who I can confidently say have had a huge positive impact on my life. I have learned many life skills and strategies that I look forward to using more in life. I am forever grateful to Ms. Carolyn and the entire HCC for your time in enrolling in the program and for being part of the college, thank you!