Linda Howell Class of 1997

From GED to Ph.D.

Linda Howell
Florida Community College, Class of 1997

Linda Howell was born in upstate New York, but spent much of her childhood between there and Florida. At that time, she didn’t think much of her education, quitting high school and working in a variety of low paying, dead-end jobs. Finally relenting to her parents’ advice that success would only come if she finished school, Linda set out to get her GED. In the spring of 1992, she arrived at Florida Community College’s Kent Campus and was immediately welcomed by the staff of the adult studies department. That May, Linda received her General Education Diploma. She was sure that this was the end of her educational journey.

Armed only with a GED however, she had little opportunity, and returned to the dead-end jobs of before, which included titles such as chambermaid, production line worker and short order cook. This convinced Linda to return to Kent Campus. Though she was positive that she “hated” school and couldn’t afford it, the faculty and financial aid personnel she met that first semester were so supportive, they convinced her otherwise.

To her surprise, Linda found that she really liked college — so much so that her academic success put her on the President’s list nearly every semester. In 1997, she graduated from Florida Community College with an Associate in Arts degree, with several choices ahead of her. After being accepted to Florida State University’s classics program, Linda instead chose to study English and classical civilizations at the University of North Florida. In 1999, she graduated summa cum laude with her bachelor’s degree. After a short stint teaching middle school, she returned to UNF to earn her Master of Arts in English, working full time as a secretary to support herself. Linda’s journey was far from over, however. Thirty semester hours into her master’s in history, she was accepted by the Department of English at the University of Florida and entered their PhD program the fall of 2003. Linda is currently in her second year at UF, her doctoral work focused in composition and rhetoric. A strange but true journey from high school dropout to graduate school!

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