CCC Alumni & Friends

她一生中有一段时间, Kiara Weathersby was a rebel who dropped out of high school because she didn’t believe in herself.  
这已经改变了.

Weathersby, 威尼斯安卓版的毕业生, graduated May 8 from Northern Arizona University with bachelor’s degrees in business management and psychology.

Born and raised in Flagstaff, Weathersby traveled a long road to reach that day. The journey began in 2008, when she was hired to work at 威尼斯安卓版. Her supervisor, Eva Jones, inspired her to get her general equivalency degree, so she did. 在那之后，她开始在CCC上课.

    “我吓坏了，”威瑟斯比说. “我根本不相信自己.”

Weathersby was part of the pilot program for CCC2NAU in 2008. CCC2NAU is a partnership with Northern Arizona University that allows students to transition seamlessly from CCC to NAU.  她在CCC工作的时候, Weathersby said the staff and faculty were incredibly supportive of her and wanted to see her succeed.
She graduated in 2010 with an associate of arts degree in general studies. Right after her graduation from CCC, she began at NAU in the fall of 2010.

    “我是从心理学开始的，”威瑟斯比说.

She wanted to focus on pre-law with an eye toward starting her own law firm. A cousin told her that if she wanted to run her own law firm, 她应该有商业背景, 尤其是合同法. 她也开始学习商业课程.

在她的学院和大学生涯中, 韦瑟斯比为她的帽子积累了许多羽毛. Among them are: President’s Medallion Recipient at CCC; Student Worker of the Year at CCC; Student Employee of the Year for the State of Arizona; and Gold Axe Award Recipient at NAU. Her accomplishments include: Student Representative for the CCC Council; Vice President of Scholarship for Phi Theta Kappa; Vice President for Chapter Operations for Delta Sigma Pi; executive assistant for the Native American Business Organization. In addition she has participated in the Executive Job Shadow program with the Thunderbirds who host the WM Phoenix Open; and through a competitive selection process she met Warren Buffett on her visit to Omaha, Nebraska she learned how to increase her value through communication. Furthermore, Weathersby received a Bronze medal at the 2015 USA Snowboard & Freeski Association National Championships in the Master Women Slalom as part of the Grand Canyon Series.

Weathersby also traveled to China and India as part of her studies. In India, 她和其他27名学生和教师一起, visited a Tibetan Refugee Settlement camp as part of the Mainpat, 跨学科全球学习项目. In April, 她参加了全球学习研讨会, 她在哪里做了关于她出国留学研究的报告.

她的父亲卡尔没能参加她的毕业典礼. 他于2012年去世.

    “His main thing was always, ‘Just finish school,’” Weathersby said. “我知道他会为我感到骄傲.”

她的母亲吉妮丝也为她感到骄傲. Weathersby said her mother also decided to go back to school and received her degree in public administration last May. She said she enjoyed going to Cline Library at NAU with her mom. They could study together and Weathersby could show her mom the ropes.

    “这真是太棒了，”威瑟斯比说.

她上学期间一直在工作, and she was recipient of a variety of scholarships to alleviate some of the burden of student debt after graduation.

一份工作就在眼前.

    “我一直听说我只需要一个，”她笑着说. She credits her support network at CCC and NAU for the networking opportunities.

最终目标是成为一名社会正义律师, but her current immediate future is to focus is on human resources positions because she likes people and advocating for them.

    “我到处都找遍了，”韦瑟比说. “I’m open to relocating because I know I can always come back home. 但现在是时候展开我的翅膀了，尽管这很可怕.”

当她开始她的旅程时，她很害怕. 现在情况已经不同了.

    “我学会了相信自己，”她说. 她补充说:“没有CCC，我不可能在这里. There’s no way.”

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