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SALISBURY POST

Wanda Cuthbertson has a great story to tell. She graduated from Livingstone College recently with honors, a 3.64 grade point average and a degree in criminal justice.

But she would never have dreamed of that degree more than 30 years ago when she dropped out of West Rowan High School, pregnant with her first child.

Now she dreams of helping people she met while interning as a deputy in the Rowan County Detention Center or parents and children caught in a pattern of abuse or neglect.

And she credits her faith in God and the support she received from Livingstone’s Continuing Education/Lifelong Learning program. The program is designed for adults who want to return to school to complete their education. Cuthbertson was among the first Lifelong Learning class to graduate.

‘‘It has been a wonderful experience being at Livingstone,’’ she said this week. ‘‘After dropping out of high school, I knew that I needed to do more for myself and for my children. I knew that it would take more education to change my condition.

‘‘I know now that I will never skip learning. It has been a trying experience at times, especially when you have as many responsibilities as I had.’’

Since she dropped out in 1966, she’s tried lots of jobs as she learned the value of education. She was 17 then.

After Toni, her oldest, was born, she got married. But that union dissolved after a few years.

She worked in a retail store in Salisbury and then on the production line at Merita Bakery, icing and packaging cakes for shipping.

‘‘Those were long hours,’’ she recalled. ‘‘Most of the time I had to be in at 3 or 4 in the morning. So I braided my children’s hair and laid out their clothes the night before, and a neighbor got them up in the morning for school.

‘‘I’d be waiting on them when they got home that afternoon.’’

She moved to Charlotte hoping to find a better living. There, she worked in a sewing plant until the late ‘70s, when bad health forced her to move back to Cleveland to stay close to her family.

Back here, she worked for Troutman Industries, which produced shirts, until that company closed in the mid ‘80s. She then enrolled at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College to get her general equivalency diploma.

Even with her diploma, she still didn’t find a job immediately and moved back to Charlotte again. She worked in a film processing company – packaging people’s pictures – and then took a customer service job, at the front desk of the Cricket Inn on Sugar Creek Road.

That job ended when an armed man robbed the hotel. Though she was not hurt, ‘‘I was terrified,’’ Cuthbertson said. ‘‘I didn’t stay long after that. I always felt that someone was following me.’’

She returned to Salisbury and enrolled in Livingstone’s program for adults in 1995.

‘‘My daughter (Toni) was in college, and I had always wanted to get my degree. But I was really afraid – timid, actually – about getting back into school,’’ she said. ‘‘I thought, ‘Gosh these kids are young.’ I never thought I wasn’t able to learn. It was just the age difference.

‘‘Once I got there, I quickly put that aside, because I quickly learned that there was nothing to be timid about.’’

She also met many other adults who were turning to college to get their degrees.

‘‘I was encouraged in my faith to continue, and God met all of my needs. So I would encourage anyone who has been out of school to go back,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s the only way to make it.’’

Daughter Toni graduated a year before her mother. And Cuthbertson’s other two daughters are also pursuing their education. Taira earned an associate degree at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and is pursuing an accounting degree at Pfeiffer University. Laverne is now working on her general equivalency diploma at Rowan-Cabarrus.

With her degree in hand, and after a period of rest, Cuthbertson will begin working on a master’s degree in ministry from Hood Seminary. She also hopes to land a job in law enforcement – she would like to work with inmates at the Rowan County Detention Center – or a social services agency.

‘‘I have a strong desire to make a difference,’’ she says. ‘‘In 1995 I began to develop my concerns for people as a local preacher in the AME Zion Church.

‘‘I want to use my compassion to help turn people around, espcially young black men and women who need to turn their lives in a different direction.’’