Success Stories
Jonathan Morton transfers to a teaching career
Story by Bonnie Henderson
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Jonathan Morton |
Jonathan Morton was 33 years old, the single parent of two boys, making his living as a bartender, when he surprised himself with the sudden decision to return to college. “I was just sitting at home one night watching TV,” he recalls, “when the thought came to me—I’d rather be doing homework than doing this.”
He’d moved to Eugene from Costa Mesa just four days after finishing high school and enrolled at Lane Community College. But he had no academic goals so he left and went to work in a restaurant. Fifteen years later, he realized that the restaurant business wasn’t giving him the kind of life he wanted, and his schedule made it hard to be the kind of parent he wanted to be. His dream was to become a social studies teacher.
It wouldn’t be easy. Even with a Pell grant, he had to borrow $10,000 the first year back in college, and it would take hard work to raise his former grade point average from 2.33 to his goal of 3.5.
But his experiences at Lane exceeded his expectations. He was elected to student government first as a senator and then as vice president. He joined a delegation to Congress in March 2008 and ran a campaign to register student voters in November 2008. He won a Ford Family Scholarship to pay for his last year at Lane and two years at university. He plans to earn a bachelor’s degree in sociology and history and a master’s in education.
His student experience has had a positive impact on his sons, now ages 10 and 12. “They see where I’m struggling with homework, and they also see that I have time for them.”
Having raised his grade point average above 3.6, Jonathan was nominated to the honor society Phi Theta Kappa and invited to join a two-week archeological and anthropological study tour of China this May. He will spend his 37th birthday at the site of the 2,000-year-old Qin dynasty terracotta army, just weeks before graduating with an associate degree.
“Starting over is not impossible,” he says, his dream of becoming a social studies teacher within reach. “Lane Community College showed me what I can be.”
Find out more about—
- Degrees and certificates: lanecc.edu/collegecatalog/degrees.html
- Student government: lanecc.edu/aslcc
- Scholarships: lanecc.edu/foundation/scholarships.htm
