LEADING
FOSTER KID TO COLLEGE VP
KIMBERLY BRITT RUNNING THE GOOD RACE By Jan Joslin / Photos provided
Southern University because she knew she needed a smaller school if she had a chance to make it. “I was admitted to CSU on a provisional status and had to meet a certain GPA to remain,” said Britt. Her foster mother, Emmogene, encouraged her to go to college and drove her down for the tour. Experiencing the changes as a student is one thing, but Britt says looking back at it as a college administrator and seeing what happened is quite another. She said, “Higher education can be a tremendous source of healing when done well. My time at CSU transformed my soul.”
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ulling up to the dorm at Stanford University as a member of the Aspen Presidential Fellowship was a watershed moment for Dr. Kimberly Britt ‘94. Britt is in a community college presidential leadership program run by Stanford University and the Aspen Institute. Britt qualified for the program as the vice president of academic and student affairs at Reynolds Community College in Richmond, Va., a school with 10,000 students and three campuses. The Fellowship trains community college leaders to lead community colleges and build success strategies for students. Arriving at Stanford, Britt sensed, “It’s not about me - it’s about all these students who are like me. We’re not that different,” she said.“I just kept on and kept on. I wanted to see if I could do it, if I would make the cut.” Britt, who earned a PhD, was told by a high school guidance counselor she wasn’t college material. She chose Charleston
12 CSU magazine
Shelter Home to College Freshman As a senior in high school, Britt would avoid the cafeteria and hide out every day in a bathroom that students weren’t supposed to visit. “I was so shy, so shame filled from physical and sexual abuse, it was hard to blend in with my peers,” she said. Used to hurt and isolation, Britt hid the fact that she was a foster kid from most of her CSU classmates, only sharing the fact with her college sweetheart and her roommate. She remained in the South Carolina foster care system until she was 21 and graduated from CSU. While she was at CSU, the state would have Britt and a young man from the College of Charleston, also a foster student, talk with social workers. “I didn’t really process it at the time,” said Britt, “but we really were rare – there were only two of us in the state.” Nationally, 10% of foster children earn a college degree, with 90 percent being left behind. Britt, who went on to earn a master’s and doctorate degree, is an anomaly. Her freshman year, Britt went to work in the university’s purchasing office for the late Linda Parker. Christmas break of Britt’s
freshman year she was sent to a foster home in Horry County for two weeks where the woman was a raging alcoholic because of a paperwork glitch that kept her from going to her usual foster home. Over time, Parker learned the realities of Britt’s life. Parker appealed to then-president Dr. Jairy Hunter, and a plan was worked out where Britt could stay on campus during breaks and work. “It is the role of a president to put strategies in place to help students to succeed,” said Britt. “That’s what Dr. Hunter and Linda Parker did for me,” she said. Parker found a dental professional who did all Britt’s dental and orthodontic work for free. “She and her husband, Mike, kept up with me all these years. She was always there for me. You don’t forget the people who mentored and supported you. Every time I visit campus, the joy and peace is still so strong. CSU changed my life.” Britt remembers having 35 cents in her pocket for a holiday weekend. Able to stay on campus, she bought a bag of chips from the vending machine and ate them throughout the weekend on a timed schedule. She remembers the poverty and the pain. She remembers the greatest rejection, when her mother stayed with the man who abused Britt. “She chose him over me,” said Britt. “That’s a pretty strong rejection. It makes you a different type of leader with a different type of purpose. Is it to make you great or to help others?” But she had a family who also encouraged and supported her. A Great Run Her sophomore year, Britt walked on to the cross country and track teams. She did it for the money. “I found out you could get a scholarship which I used to buy clothes, books and
Fall 2020, vol.30 no.3
