Erin Kvande just graduated from Shoreline Community College and is off to Mt. Holyoke college in Massachusetts this fall on a virtually full-ride scholarship.
But unlike students who go to college straight from high school, Kvande, 30, has had some twists and turns on the way.
She attended Shoreline Community College in 1996 studying music, but worked as a waitress at the time to pay for school, working over 50 hours a week.
“There was no time…I dropped out,” said Kvande.
That launched almost 10 years of random, short-term jobs. First Kvande worked with adults with developmental disabilities at a home in Seattle, then moved to Los Angeles, Calif., where she was a barista for a year and a half.
She moved back to Seattle and did picture framing at an art store, then moved to Long Island in 2001. In New York, she was the secretary at a kitchen design firm and eventually did design work herself.
In 2004, homesickness brought Kvande back to Seattle.
She got a job as a service coordinator for an audio visual company.
Of all her jobs, it was the most difficult.
“I was doing the job of about three people,” Kvande said.
In fact, when she left, the company hired three people to do what she’d been doing.
“I became an insomniac because of the stress of that job,” Kvande said. “A light went off in my head and I realized I had the power to change my situation.”
So in spring 2006, she came back to Shoreline Community College. After Mt. Holyoke, she plans to go to law school and work in immigration law, supporting immigrants who struggle to navigate the system.
Kvande describes her 10 years of wandering as a time when she was still trying to find herself and find confidence.
Her experiences have helped her find those things, she said.
“All those experiences added together…with age, you learn about yourself and about life,” she said. “I gained clarity — I was able to throw out the unimportant stuff to see the path I wanted to take.”
Kvande is the first in her family to attend college.
Her father died when she was 10, and for some years when she was younger her mother worked several jobs to support them.
Next year she will live in a dorm with other freshman, something that doesn’t concern her at all, she said.
“I can’t wait until August,” she said.
She said she was grateful to Shoreline Community College for her education.
“The staff supported my learning,” she said. “I owe them my gratitude.”
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