Roughly 30 percent of community college students transfer to a four-year institution to continue pursuing their education. Jayleigh Tawbush is one such student who transferred from Wallace State Community College to The University of Alabama. Jayleigh knew she wanted to be involved on campus even before classes started, so she drove two hours for a 15-minute interview to take advantage of an opportunity with University Programs (UP). Now, she’s a senior education major and the executive team lead for UP’s programming team. Looking back on that two-hour drive, Jayleigh recalls it as “the best decision of my life.”
Jayleigh embraced UP to the fullest as it served as her gateway to the Capstone’s community. “I genuinely love the work,” she said. “I love bringing students together and finding a place where they can build community.” From bingo nights to Bama Jam, Jayleigh has strengthened and expanded her skill set while maturing under the guidance of the professional UP staff. “All of the professional staff in UP are absolutely wonderful and really push us to be the best and most successful versions of ourselves,” she said. Her hard work even landed her as a finalist for the 2022-2023 Student Employee of the Year Award!
Her time as an event programmer has also given her a leg up in her academic studies as a secondary education major. “There are so many different aspects of UP. The skills you make when you start working there are all transferrable to whatever you want to do,” she explained. Eventually, she’ll be able to use what she learned in UP to effectively lead a classroom full of students!
She had no way of knowing it, but that two-hour car drive would propel her to grow beyond her expectations and make life-long friendships with other UP students in the
process. Jayleigh graduated last weekend and plans to pursue a graduate in higher education administration at Vanderbilt University. When she looks back on her career, Jayleigh attributes a vast amount of positive change to UP. “It set me on the best possible path and I just want everyone to know they can have the same success that I did.”
