By Heather Graves
Editor
GREEN BAY – As a single parent of three children, Sarah Hite (they/them) began technical college, navigated the obstacles of a divorce, struggled with housing insecurity and family loss and grappled with acceptance as a member of the LGBTQ+ community – all by age 24.
To say Hite, a Northeast Wisconsin Technical College student and 2022 DREAM Scholar receipt, now 29, has had a few challenging years would be an understatement.
“Honestly, if I were to say two years ago, this would be my future, I would have taken so many twists and turns the last five years, (I wouldn’t have believed it),” Hite said.
Hite said things didn’t happen overnight, but once they developed their academic confidence, “I was able to find my own voice and accept who I was.”
“I hope anyone who hears my story recognizes the magnitude of diversity of those around them,” Hite said. “It’s important we instill these core values within ourselves and future generations, so we are creating a more equitable world.”
The path to here
Hite credits where they are today – a DREAM Scholar recipient and on the road to becoming a high school science teacher – to the struggles they encountered throughout their life.
Hite said they married young, which had more to do with getting out of their parents’ home, than a strong relationship.
“It was shortly after high school that I met my ex-husband,” they said. “I think wanting to spread my wings and get out of my parents’ house, I ended up moving things too quickly… getting pregnant just kind of followed suit. We got married and four years and two more kids later – it was not a happy marriage. There was a lot of emotional abuse going on there. And when I left, I just wanted to be with my three kids, and we hit the ground running. So, it’s kind of been myself and them from that point.”
Hite said school grounded them, and the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to rethink their path.
Finishing up their last semester in NWTC’s laboratory science program, on track to a career as a science teacher, Hite said their renewed interest in learning helped them come into their own.
“When I was in high school, I had no appreciation for math and science,” Hite said. “I have a mother who’s very artistic, and so she raised all of us thinking we were going to be artists. And so that was the only one I learned to appreciate. So when I started going back to school in my early 20s, I was originally going for nursing and my first serious challenge was getting through just general chemistry.”
Hite said opening a textbook and learning about the molecules and the reactions that are happening, “I just fell head over heels in love with it.”
“I wanted to stick with what I had started with,” they said. “But by the time I got to my second semester, I realized nursing wasn’t going to take me anywhere close to where I wanted to go, and I was trying to teach myself physics on the side,” they said. “So, when COVID happened and everything went virtual, I was like, ‘This is a good time to make a decision and figure out what I want to do.’”
Following a new path
Torn between research and teaching, Hite said in the beginning, they weren’t sure exactly what they wanted to do.
“I thought I’d just disappear in a lab somewhere, and I was totally OK with that,” they said. “I hadn’t really thought of teaching, and it wasn’t something that even happened overnight. I started getting to know my peers and networking a little bit, and I realized I had a way of leading people and connecting with people. (Teaching) just grew on me immensely… being able to bring people together for science.”
Teaching at the high school level, Hite said for them, was a no-brainer.
“I remember being in high school, and I was such a wallflower,” they said. “I didn’t have a strong sense of direction, and there wasn’t anything that really spoke out to me. There weren’t any teachers that really spoke to me, and I didn’t really feel that huge sense of belonging… Your body is changing, and your social circle is changing, and how you feel about things are changing, and being able to be in the position to be there for students at that difficult time and reassure them it was going to be OK. I think that this is a really sensitive age group. It’s the future generation. They’re going to be going off to college after high school, and being able to get them ready for college and ready for their professional lives, that’s very rewarding.”
Hite’s laboratory science instructor, Shannon Brunette, said she has has no doubt Hite will succeed as a teacher.
“They’re going to be a high school teacher, it’s just a matter of time,” Brunette said. “And they are going to be an incredible high school teacher. But longer term… Maybe going back to school for a higher degree, still being a teacher, but at that higher level.”
Hite said when they graduate from NWTC this spring, its just the beginning.
“I just want to keep going to school,” they said. “Get my degree in science finished along with a double major in education or a minor in education work as a teacher. I honestly don’t anticipate ever stopping school. That has been where I found myself and my grounding and my attraction to just keep propelling forward and keep motivating my kids to propel forward.”
DREAM Scholar
Hite is one of just eight students nationwide selected as a 2022 DREAM Scholar by Achieving the Dream (ATD).
After being nominated by NWTC, Hite underwent a competitive application process.
“I remember I was in a class, and an email had popped up, and it said ‘Congratulations, your faculty have nominated you,’” they said. “And I was like, ‘Was this even supposed to come to me? Was it SPAM? I didn’t even know what it was. I read it over a few times and then I’m like, ‘OK, maybe there’s more to this than I thought…’ I didn’t know if it was even worth applying, if my voice was strong enough.”
Hite said something changed that night.
“I remember getting a really nasty message from my ex-husband that night, and finally I was like, ‘You know what? I’m done. I’m done with this, and I’m going to stand up for this and all of the other people that are going through the situation like us. And so I filled out the application very meticulously and submitted it. I had no idea what was going to come of it.”
Hite found out they were selected as a scholar in January by email, again thinking it was a mistake.
“It was my last week of organic chemistry class, and I was again in the middle of a lecture,” they said. “An email popped up and it said, ‘You were selected.’ I don’t remember the rest of the lecture at all. I had so many emotions going through my head… In the moment I thought, all of the things I had done and been through, it all came flying back at me and I’m like, ‘That is the reason I went through these things.’”
DREAM Scholars participate in a program designed to enhance their professional and personal skils through workshops, networking and financial awards.
Each scholar will receive a scholarship to support their educational or personal journey.
In addition, Hite, along with another scholar, were selected for the Harvey Lincoln Scholarship Program, an additional scholarship awarded to two of the eight scholars “just for persevering through.”
As a scholar, Hite participated in the virtual ATD Dream conference Feb. 15-17, where they shared their story with thousands.
“That was quite a liberating experience,” they said. “I sat on a panel with other people, and we talked about that sense of belonging and how instructors and schools can kind of bridge that gap and make it so students feel that. So speaking on a conference call for about 3,500 people… it was very nerve wracking, but also grateful I was going through it. I wasn’t nervous. And when it was done, I was like, ‘Holy cow, that just happened. Like, my voice was just heard across that many people across the country like. So mind blowing.”
NWTC President Dr. Jeffrey Rafn said NTWC is grateful Hite’s hard work was recognized.
“Sarah’s resilience, positive outlook, and commitment continues to inspire our college every day,” Rafn said. “It is students like this who remind us as educators of why we are here, and why we continue to help build pathways to achieve their success.”
Brunette said Hite’s scholar selection emphasizes what people can achieve when they’re given that opportunity.
“And that’s the mission of a whole college, is to find people who don’t think they can, and make it possible for them and just embodies all of that,” she said. “And they represent us. They represent our students so well and so completely that everybody’s just blown away when they talk to them.”
Hite said the recognition and opportunity to represent NWTC as a DREAM scholar holds personal significance for “myself as I look back at how I arrived here.”
Hite said the pandemic provided a fresh slate – they started to leave their phone behind, disconnected from social media and really came to terms with who they were.
“I started stepping out of a lot of my shadows and dealt with myself,” they said. “I stopped being ashamed of those things.”