Transfer pathway allows education student to earn bachelor's degree close to home

For Hannah Pence, Elizabethtown Community and Technical College and Western Kentucky University alumnus, the ability to stay close to home and earn a bachelor's degree was almost too good to be true.

“It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that I could get the same degree at the Elizabethtown campus that I could at a university,” she said.

Pence recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education through WKU at ECTC. ECTC’s partnership with this and other four-year universities allows students to earn bachelor’s degrees in several fields without having to leave the area. Elementary education spoke to Pence because she has fond memories of her teachers, specifically her first-grade teacher.

“She was such a big influence on my life,” Pence said. “I still remember her greeting students at the door to her classroom and teaching me to tell time. I want to make a difference in someone’s life like she did in mine.”

Pence lives in the Stephensburg/Cecilia area and didn’t like the idea of leaving her family to attend college. She chose ECTC because, as she put it, she always knew she’d end up there.

“I’m very family focused, and I liked that it was nearby,” she said, adding that ECTC’s affordability was another huge draw.

Pence is starting her first year as a kindergarten teacher at North Park Elementary in Radcliff and plans on continuing her education to earn a master’s degree. She credits ECTC with helping her get to where she is right now.

“The connection I had with my professors was very important,” she said. “I could talk to them whenever I needed. Plus, staying close to home allowed me to scout out the schools I wanted to work at in the community I wanted to work in.”