Glastonbury Woman Wins Kudos From Wesleyan University Student

Sheldyn Oliver

GLASTONBURY – The Fall semester is over, grades are rolling in, and Middletown resident Wesleyan University student Sheldyn Oliver is feeling quite good about it.

The 2015 MxCC graduate, who received a full scholarship to Wesleyan, earned an A+, two As, a B and a 3.83 (A-) average. She had Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges (4Cs) members at Middlesex Community College to thank for this, especially Counselor Emily Canto of Glastonbury.
The college application process can be an overwhelming, daunting task, Oliver said. Not only does a student have to find colleges that are a good fit for their educational and career interests, but they have to navigate their way through the sometimes confusing application process.

It helps to have someone to go to address these problems and Canto was one such person. “She sat down with me to explain things about various applications and how to find educational pathways available to pursue my various interests,” Oliver said.

Canto, along with the other 4Cs members who helped Oliver, reflect the 4Cs culture of commitment, said 4Cs President Bryan Bonina. “Emily demonstrated the commitment to students and the community that is the hallmark of 4Cs members at Middlesex and the other 11 community colleges in the state,” he said.

“That commitment has meant success for countless community college students over the years,” Bonina said.

There are numerous other 4Cs members who helped Oliver during her academic career at MxCC. Some helped her navigate her way through the sometimes cumbersome process of transferring to a four-year school and identify programs and schools to apply to.

4Cs member and Prof. John Shafer of Portland, coordinator of the college’s communications program, first interested her in applying to Wesleyan. “He was my academic advisor,” she said.

“I had thought I would be applying to a state school,” she said. “But he kept asking me, ‘why not this?’ ‘Why not that?’’ Why not send out more applications?”

Oliver credits Coordinator of Institutional Advancement Trenton E. Wright Jr. of Old Lyme for being a major factor in her achievement to date. “I worked in his office and spent a lot of time with him,” she said. “There, I learned skills that will be a benefit both in college and in a career.”

“This was high-traffic office where I was in contact with a lot of people,” she said. “Under his direction, I learned to think on my feet and confidently make quick decisions that were the right decisions.”

On the academic side, she credits her success at MxCC and Wesleyan to English professors and Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges (4Cs) members Adam Floridia of Southington and Terence McNulty of West Hartford who provided valuable instruction in college-level writing.

“Professors Floridia and McNulty assigned a lot of papers and responses, which gave me the opportunity to develop my writing skills as well,” she said. “This gave me the opportunity to develop my skills in both essay form and content.”

This especially benefited her in at least one course as Wesleyan. “One of my classes didn’t have exams, but had six papers,” said Oliver, who was one of 18 community college students from around the state to be named to the 2015 All-Connecticut Academic Team for outstanding scholarly and leadership achievement and represented the state in the All-USA Academic Team Competition and the Coca-Cola Scholars Competition. “The skills I learned from these professors helped me do as well as I did with these papers,” she said.

MxCC Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) advisors and Profs. Lin Lin of Manchester and Patricia Raymond of Wethersfield provided invaluable advice and direction to Oliver and her fellow PTK students.

“Profs. Raymond and Lin offered us guidance and support in undertaking a project,” she said. “But they didn’t do it for us. They helped us identify the direction in which to go and then go there.”

The project, she noted, was a television public service announcement on the negative impact of stereotyping on its victims. The students scripted and videotaped the announcement.

Raymond is a professor of business administration while Lin is the coordinator of the engineering science and computer engineering technology program at Middlesex.

While Oliver singled out these seven for special mention, they weren’t the only ones she felt were on her team. “It was the help I received from the entire institution that brought me to where I am academically,” she said. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”