Adviser has kids' futures in her hands

January 18, 2009, News-Record.Com, Greensboro, NC - By Myla Barnhardt

Come mid-August, when Chelsea Dix packs her bags and goes off to college, she'll be the first one in her family to do so.

And she'll pay for most of it with an ROTC scholarship.

By the time you read this, the Morehead High School senior, who has applied to five schools and for several scholarships, will have heard from her top college picks. She'll be able to concentrate on less serious things, such as what she'll need to buy for her dorm room.

And, if she needs advice about that, she knows where to turn. If it has anything to do with college, Kelli Hammond is the go-to person.

Hammond is a college access adviser at Morehead and McMichael high schools. This is her first year in that job and only the second year in operation for the National College Advising Corps, a program that places recent college graduates in high schools to assist students with applications, financial aid and school selection.

Hammond says Chelsea is her first success story. During the fall semester, she talked with Chelsea about her applications and was a willing listener as Chelsea fretted over whether she'd get into her top-pick schools.

In mid-December, when Chelsea came into her office with news of the ROTC scholarship, Hammond was ecstatic. "She was the first one at either school to give me big news like that," she says.

Hammond's job is helping high school students get to college. Sometimes that means talking to them about the college choices that are out there. She's also willing to walk them through the application process, read and edit their essays and make suggestions for improving them. And she does everything she can to help them find financial aid.

It's a job Hammond loves.

Last spring, Hammond was facing graduation herself -- from UNC-Chapel Hill -- and trying to figure out what she wanted to do next. "I knew I wanted to go to law school, but I wanted to take a few years off first," she says.

She also had a yen to do some type of community service. It came down to two jobs, and she interviewed for them both on the same day. One was with a law firm as a clerk. The other was for the college access adviser position with the Carolina Advising Corps, which is part of the national not-for-profit group.

The interview was all it took for the college access job to win out. "I knew I had to do it," she says.

She spent seven weeks in training and as part of that, visited more than 20 colleges and universities in the state. "We toured all the campuses and, at some, we spent the night in dorms and ate in dining halls," says Hammond, who feels that really lets her give a student the scoop on a school.

At the end of the training, she and 17 other UNC graduates were placed in high schools around the state. Hammond is joined in Rockingham County by Kareemah Lewis, who works at Reidsville and Rockingham County high schools. Both positions are funded by the Annie Penn Community Trust.

They work with all the students in the school, but a program goal is to reach low-income students and those such as Chelsea, who are the first in their family to attend college.

Hammond says she relates easily to that since she and her older sister were the firsts in their family to go to college. She also knows what it is like to live in a small town -- she's from Forest City, a town of about 7,500, near Asheville.

"It's a place where not many tend to venture away when it comes to going to college," she says.

Also like Chelsea, Hammond got a scholarship to attend college. All those things help her relate to the students. They start dropping by her office before school starts, some with questions, others just to chat.

"No day is typical," she says. Two weeks ago, she participated in an evening workshop on financial aid. There, she got to meet some of the students' parents.

"When parents show the initiative to want to help their kids, that's rewarding," she says. And she wishes more students would come to her, but it's just a matter of spreading the word that she's available.

Hammond has the option of serving for one more year at both schools.

When her stint with the Advising Corp is over, she'll be ready to continue her own education.

But she's changed her mind about law school.

After being in a school working with high school students and realizing the kind of impact she can have on a young life, Hammond has decided to become a teacher.

 

Contact Myla Barnhardt at 627-4881, Ext. 116, or myla.barnhardt@news-record.com