College is a mother and son act for Lisa and Eric
By Sandy Watkins
[email protected]
Staff Writer
 Lisa Worley and Eric Worley are individually typical Georgia Highlands College students. Both are studious, hard working and serious about being successful. But Lisa and Eric have more than that in common. They are mother and son.
Eric, the youngest of Lisa's three children, graduated from Adairsville High School in 2002 and played football for the University of North Alabama last year. After a year of football, frat parties, dorm life and other distractions, Eric decided it was time to reevaluate his educational and career goals.
He switched his focus from athletic to academic and decided that Georgia Highlands College was better suited to his academic and career needs.
A General Studies major, Eric will be transferring to Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta next fall to pursue a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. Eric currently works for Larry Dixon Construction and plans to continue construction design after graduation.
"I wish that I had come to Georgia Highlands College to begin with because there aren't so many distractions. UNA was kind of a shock. I think everyone should live at home the first few years. It's just so much easier, and you don't have other hassles," asserts Eric. "Floyd was just the right fit for me."
When Eric left home last year, Lisa began to reevaluate what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. Like many other women, she married soon after high school graduation and since then has been a devoted wife and mother for the past 23 years. She and her husband own a family restaurant, Old Hickory House, in Calhoun, but Lisa decided that the timing was right to pursue her own dream of becoming a nurse.
Last year she enrolled in and attended Coosa Valley Tech, taking prerequisite courses for the LPN program, but realized that her career goals exceeded the scope of the LPN licensure and made the logical progression to Georgia Highlands College to obtain her RN licensure. She hopes to enter the clinical sequence this fall, and after graduation plans to transfer to a BSN program to specialize in cardiac care.
Lisa says that she and Eric have always been very close and that she is very proud of him. She is happy to have him back at home but admits that she had not planned for them to be at the same school at the same time.
According to Lisa, Eric has always been very independent and is so smart, especially in math, and sometimes they study together or, rather, simultaneously. However, she says that she is more methodical and consistent about daily study habits and Eric's learning style is more cramming before tests, which seems to work well for him.
Lisa's biggest support and greatest encouragement comes from Eric. He says, "I think it's great that she's going to school. Some people ask me if it's weird, and I tell them not at all. I'm proud of her for going back to school after being out so long. It was a brave thing to do. She's really smart and can do anything she wants to do. I think it's great that she wants to do it."
"The best part of going to school with Eric is that we get to spend more quality time together and it has brought us closer together," Lisa said. Both mother and son agree that Georgia Highlands College is the right fit for both of their academic needs and career goals.
Lisa and Eric Worley, mother and son, a traditional and a non-traditional student, both enriching their lives with Georgia Highlands College.
|
