A Personalized Education | An Interview with Tammy Hollo

Tammy Hollo:
I'm married, mom of two. We live on a working farm. I work full-time for the Illinois Department of Corrections as a counselor. This actually… I started going back to school. My first college class was in 2001, and I've been going part time—a class here and there—ever since.
Dr. Sarah Cordell:
They have families. They have work responsibilities, so it's a major commitment to do well in any online course, I would think. When you've got… when your life is just full of other responsibilities, you have to carve out time to do your academic work.
Tammy Hollo:
I can't count the number of times that I wanted to bang my head against the wall and go, "That's it, no more." But you almost get to a point where you've come too far to stop, and you just need to see it through. And when it's all over with, know it was worth it. I finally met with Michelle Kinney. I said, "I've got to meet with an advisor. This has gone on too long." And met with her, and she said if you do this and do this, you can graduate in the spring. So I said, "It's just time to get it done."
Michelle Kenney:
A lot of my students are that way. They think they're so far from that end goal. In reality it's just how we manipulate the courses that they've taken to fit where they need to go. And so it's a pleasure in helping them see that "the end is near" kind of thing. To graduate with that Bachelor's Degree is such an accomplishment for them.
Tammy Hollo:
I love to read. I love to write. One of the biggest things I love about literature is I think it gives you the opportunity to walk in someone else's shoes, per se, and I think we need a lot more of that in this world. I think if people had the ability to, at least just for a minute, try to understand another perspective, we'd have a lot better outcomes and a lot better situations.
Dr. Sarah Cordell:
I want my students to improve. I want them to improve as readers. I want them to improve as writers. I want them to improve as thinkers, as analysts, literary analysts, textual analysts. And they're... yeah, it's difficult, and I push them. I push them because I don't think they should leave any class at the same place intellectually as where they were when they began.
Tammy Hollo:
What I like about Dr. Cordell so much is that I know there's no guessing what she wants. I know exactly what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it, and for me that structure is very, very helpful. Any time I've ever had a question, she's always been there to answer the question or explain further if I need more of an explanation for something. She's just very easy to work with.
Dr. Sarah Cordell
Tammy came a long way, and I'm very proud of her.

Transcribed 2/23/2023