Recent MCC Graduate Turns Persistence Into Smarts

MANCHESTER, CT — Recent Manchester Community College graduate Diane Lareau AmEnde's roller coaster college career culminated with a flare when she picked up a Board of Regents Medallion for Academic Excellence after reaching a 4.0 cumulative grade point average.

MCC officials quipped she learned the value of "attitude" during her years pursuing an associate degree in general studies.

For AmEnde, a resident of the Amston secti0n of Hebron, the degree was "a truly personal achievement," MCC officials said. After starting at MCC twice previously — once when she came out of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1982, and again 10 years later as a mother of two small children — she had to suspend her studies for personal reasons.

This time at MCC, she enrolled in classes that met in the evening, while working 45-to-60 hours a week.

"This had nothing to do with my career," she said. "It was something I had to prove to myself. I had to prove to myself that I was smart enough to earn a college degree."

She returned to MCC via the Adults in Transition program in 2015, whixch offers the evening classess, MCC officials said. She said in the first class she took — English Composition — she read an essay about literacy that drove home the value of education.

"My classes taught me how to be a critical thinker — someone who instead of sitting on the sidelines can participate in the debates and conversations of the world in an active and empowered way," she said.

AmEnde said she owes her success this time around to the "supportive faculty and staff at MCC" and her now-adult daughter and son, Amanda and Alex Opuszynski, as well as her husband of 25 years, Doug AmEnde.

"Ability determines what you’re capable of," she said. "Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

In addition to her studies, AmEnde started an Adult Student Network that she ran for a year, became involved in Phi Theta Kappa, the internationally acclaimed honor society recognizing the academic achievement of associate degree students (as a co-vice president) and volunteered at events.

With her associate degree in hand, she hopes to give back after she retires by volunteering as a tutor.

Recalling that essay on literacy, AmEnde said, "It would be amazing to affect an adult and their children, as well as their impact on their own community's potential, by helping people improve their literacy skills."