Barbara Roquemore

Barbara Roquemore: If I had any doubt about my need for college, a summer working in a hot cotton mill settled it. When I wonder where I got the belief that I could be the first in my family to go to college, I remember my dad. He ran away from his orphanage with his younger brother during the Great Depression to join the circus where he became a trapeze artist. I paid my way through college keeping the books for the service station where I and other coeds, wearing bikinis, pumped gas for tourists going to Florida. After-hours and weekends, I ironed new shipments of clothing for a dress store, was a hand and foot model, and won a beauty contest for prize money to supplement a small academic scholarship. I tell my students,"if a poor Appalachian girl with circus roots can complete college, anyone can."

Jeff Duffey: At 58, my dad became a Shriner clown. Like Barbara's dad, he grew up during the Great Depression. Dad pushed a mower to cut the lawns of Middle Ga. College his freshman year. He fell a hundred dollars short of raising enough money to return. Even if it meant working two jobs, my dad was determined his kids would complete college. When I started college, I had turned 17 the week before, I had no idea just how inexperienced, poor, inattentive, and out-of-my-league I was. I did know one thing, I had to make it. My dad was right. Davidson College changed my life . I want you to use this book to open your eyes to what is ahead, so you too will make it.