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Student Profiles

Ursula Jones
All the way in Alaska, meet the state’s first-ever cyber security apprentice

You’ve heard our expression from here, go anywhere? Ursula Jones is anywhere – i.e., Juneau, Alaska, to be exact. She’s also a Tidewater Community College student who is the first cyber security apprentice in the state of Virginia. “Apprenticeship is not impossible, even if you live in Timbuktu,” quipped Jones, a Juneau native who works […]

Emma Tracy - First TCC student to earn an Associate of Fine Arts in Music.
First AFA graduate on her way to VCU to study vocal performance

Emma Tracy started taking voice lessons at age 12. Today she is a college graduate who has parlayed her love of singing into a college degree. Tracy, 23, became Tidewater Community College’s first graduate to earn an Associate of Fine Arts in Music when she walked across the stage at the Ted Constant Convocation Center […]

Jordan McNair’s Honda PACT classmates who completed his project car are (standing left-right) Demian Rose, Demetrio Gallegos, Zack Kronske, instructor David Lee, Christian Benner, Dominique Martin and Eric Carmel. Not pictured, Drew Isom.
Honda PACT student’s memory lives on with completed project car and scholarship fund

Jordan McNair is fondly remembered as the “little brother” by his classmates in the Honda Professional Automotive Career Training (PACT) program at Tidewater Community College’s Regional Automotive Center. McNair received his Career Studies Certificate in Automotive Chassis Systems posthumously after a fatal automobile accident ended his life in August 2017. His parents, Dexter McNair and […]

Tony Sawyer was active in Phi Theta Kappa, serving as vice president of service.
Student speaker dedicated to leading a purpose-driven life

Tony Sawyer credits Tidewater Community College with his successful transition from high school dropout to college graduate. The student speaker for TCC’s 66th Commencement Exercises will share his story with classmates before he receives his Associate of Science in Social Sciences during the ceremony held May 12 at the Ted Constant Convocation Center. The Chesapeake […]

christine-dela-cruz
She came to TCC without a plan but will leave with an associate degree, a full-time job and no student debt

When Christine Dela Cruz immigrated to this country five years ago from the Philippines to join her father in Virginia Beach, she didn’t know what was next. Word-of-mouth led her to Tidewater Community College, and with the help of academic advising on the Virginia Beach Campus, she discovered a career path she had never considered. […]

skilled trades academy
TCC graduate found her passion to serve while in college

Shorntail Goodrich came to Tidewater Community College to retrain for a new career. She spent her 20s and 30s working as an apartment complex manager and later as an identification clerk for Norfolk Police Department. “With no degree, I was stuck in low-paying jobs,” she said. “You can have a great work ethic and think […]

Jay Sellers
TCC’s Norfolk Campus awards its first Governor’s Medallion

Jay Sellers is the first Tidewater Community College student to earn his associate degree from the Norfolk Campus while still in high school. The homeschooled senior started at TCC taking 19 credit hours his first semester. This May, Sellers, 17, will earn his Associate of Science in General Studies, enabling him to enter a four-year […]

TCC 71 Fall Commencement
Mom and daughter earning same associate degree on same day

Linda and Danielle Owens close up the Joint-Use Library almost every weeknight. They’re not staff, they’re late-night study partners who will be Tidewater Community College graduates on May 12. They will sit side by side at the Ted Constant Convocation Center where each will be conferred an Associate of Applied Science in Early Childhood Education […]

a TCC Student
Trio of Portsmouth high-schoolers bound for college as juniors thanks to dual enrollment

Gabrielle Hutchings, Brandi Porter and Jaylyn Richard trade stories about night classes, chemistry homework and not enough hours in a day to complete everything on their to-do lists. The teenagers also revel in an achievement that will allow them to enter four-year colleges as juniors thanks to already earning associate degrees from Tidewater Community College. Norcom […]

Dakota Bernacki
Perseverance pays off for TCC scholarship recipient

Dakota Bernacki always knew he would be paying his own way through college. So when the time came for him to consider his educational options, Tidewater Community College’s affordability made it the clear choice. “I didn’t want to wing it and hope I got the financial aid I needed at a four-year school,” Bernacki said. […]