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Worth resident Amy Paladin wants Moraine Valley students to experience what she has experienced over the past year at the college. So, as the new student trustee, she has set her sights on getting more students involved in events and activities at the community college in Palos Hills and helping them gain the success she has had thus far.
“Being involved really helps,” says the mother of two children—daughter Frankie, 4, and son Tommy, 2. “I have met some really great people.” Paladin, 29, served as vice president of the Community Service Club, participated in other clubs’ and organizations’ activities and attended Inter-Club Council meetings.
Now she will serve all students as their elected representative to the Board of Trustees—a challenge she relishes. As student trustee, she will have the opportunity to find ways to get more students involved—especially returning adults—and to work with those clubs and organizations to raise funds to help students with their college expenses.
Paladin, 29, says she knows what a struggle it is for many students to attend college because she found herself in the same situation after graduating from Shepard High School more than 10 years ago. “I couldn’t afford to go to college nor could my parents pay for it,” so she had to go to work. Her two children changed her mind. “They motivated me to decide to do something important. You have to have a college education to be successful.” She became the first person in her immediate family to go to college, and “hopefully, I’ll start a trend with my kids and with their kids.”
There is also a personal goal to wanting to serve on the Board of Trustees. The social science major who aspires to be a high school teacher eventually wants to go into education administration, and her work as student trustee will give her insight on how an educational institution operates—“what goes on behind the scenes.” She noted that although she has only been in her position for one board meeting, “I already have learned a lot.”
Her desire to have a career in education—whether as a teacher or administrator—also may lead her back to her community college. “Moraine Valley is a cool place to work and go to school. I’d love to be a part of it. Everybody here has made me feel important. Everybody has helped me—even students in my classes who are 18 and 19 years old. I haven’t come across a teacher I haven’t liked. They all have been so helpful.”
For more information, call Mark Horstmeyer, director of College and Community Relations, at (708) 974-5275, or e-mail: horstmeyer@morainevalley.edu.
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Amy Paladin of Worth takes the oath of office April 21 from Joseph Murphy, chairman of the Board of Trustees, as Moraine Valley Community College’s student trustee.
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