Jeannette High & James

Student

“My advice is to take Human Development 11: Orientation to Higher Education. It walks you through EOP&S, financial aid, whatever you need.”

She talks quickly, as though she were on her way to an appointment, and she usually is. With a book. “I’m taking 18 units and so far, so good: 4.0,” she says. “I’m working on a double major in business/economics with international area studies. It’s a lot of undergrad work and I’ll transfer from UCLA to Pepperdine for my master’s. I’ve got 15 years in accounting and Pepperdine won’t make you go through the whole program if you’ve already done the field work.” Master’s in hand and son James in tow, Jeannette plans on opening her own accountancy firm, specializing in Japanese clients.

“I’m in international studies because I want to do business with Pacific Rim countries, which is where all the money seems to be,” she says. Jeannette is from a family that speaks languages from around the world. “Even my son speaks English, Spanish, and Italian,” she says. But knowing languages and being able to speak them are two different things. “I have a speech class with Heidi Crane, who is just excellent. I’m petrified of public speaking but Heidi has given me so much support that I can get up and do it.” Jeannette credits another SMC instructor, Janet Yu, with understanding the demands of raising a child while going to school. “Janet has been great,” she says. “If I’m having some ‘child problems,’ she really understands and helps me to work around things.”

Coming in contact with EOP&S has proven to be another boon to Jeannette. “They operate the CARE program there, thank God. It’s extra support for single parents with young children. They can help with extra grants, transportation, counseling, just everything,” she says. “It seems like they’ve got some kind of support system at SMC for everything. And with my schedule, I’m going to definitely need it.”

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