First In My Family; Not The Last
When Martha Selmon was in high school, a guidance counselor looked at her transcript and made a prediction she would carry for years.
He told her that even if she attended summer school for three consecutive years, she would never graduate. Then he added something even more damaging.
"Someone like you doesn't belong in college."
Coming from a first-generation, working-class family where higher education wasn't familiar, Martha believed him.
She left high school convinced he was right.
Years later, an aunt she affectionately called Tía Meche offered a different message.
"Martita, you can do this."
Those simple words became the beginning of a new chapter.
Martha earned her GED and enrolled in community college, but life continued to interrupt her plans. Marriage, financial challenges, military service, motherhood, health issues, and multiple moves repeatedly pulled her away from finishing her degree. More than once, she found herself wondering whether that high school counselor had been right all along.
Still, the dream refused to disappear.
After leaving the military and completing a cosmetology program during the pandemic, Martha found herself searching online for universities near her new home in South Carolina. She discovered Winthrop University and made a decision that would change her life.
"I was going to create my own story."
With the encouragement of faculty who believed in her potential, Martha enrolled in the Bachelor of Professional Studies program. Balancing coursework while raising two young children required extraordinary discipline. She often carried five or six classes at a time, completed accelerated terms, stayed up late after her children were asleep, and leaned on the steady encouragement of her husband.
The results surprised even her.
Fourteen months after enrolling, Martha graduated cum laude as the first person in her family to earn a college degree. Along the way, she conducted undergraduate research on Latinx adult learners, presented at academic conferences, became active in student organizations, and was selected as a featured student representing Winthrop University.
Graduation wasn't the finish line.
It became the beginning of believing in herself.
Inspired by faculty mentors, Martha applied to graduate school and was accepted into multiple programs before choosing to pursue a Master of Health Administration at the University of South Carolina. She later received the nationally competitive CAHME Nancy Rosenthal Scholarship, an honor that once would have seemed unimaginable.
The most meaningful moment, however, happened at graduation.
Her two young sons watched their mother walk across the stage.
Today, her oldest already talks about going to college someday—just like his mom.
Looking back, Martha no longer hears the counselor who told her she didn't belong.
She hears the voice that mattered all along.
"Martita, you can do this."
Her story reminds us that one person's doubt can shape a life—but one person's belief can transform generations.
Martha Selmon is one of fifty adult learners featured in Beyond the Degree: Stories of Adult Learner Comebacks and What They Teach Us. Read her complete story in her own words, and discover what these remarkable comebacks teach us, in the book from the Center for Academic Innovation.