{"id":15345,"date":"2020-12-18T10:28:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T15:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/?p=15345"},"modified":"2020-12-18T10:29:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T15:29:51","slug":"to-prove-them-wrong-transylvania-sophomore-needed-support-of-tight-knit-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/2020\/12\/to-prove-them-wrong-transylvania-sophomore-needed-support-of-tight-knit-community\/","title":{"rendered":"To \u201cprove them wrong\u201d Transylvania sophomore needed support of tight-knit community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Falling in love with Transy\u2019s close-knit campus means different things to different people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Standifur on a wildlife sanctuary in New South Wales, where she holds Billy the Bilby, a marsupial on the verge of extinction in Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For Courtney Standifur \u201923, who had never lived outside of Pikeville, Kentucky, finding a campus where she could feel at home and supported meant the difference between following her dream of becoming a veterinarian and never knowing what might have been.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standifur knows how easily she could have succumbed to the fears expressed by some of her high school teachers. As she contemplated going to college in a city that was at once daunting and filled with opportunities, they warned her not to venture beyond her hometown. They worried she would not be welcomed as a woman from Eastern Kentucky and would face bullying and debilitating stereotyping. Better to stay home, they told her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But their warnings served only to strengthen her resolve. \u201cThe point of them wanting to protect me drove me and pushed me harder to prove everyone wrong,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She remembers stepping onto Transy\u2019s campus and feeling welcomed \u2014 an important first step. \u201cI immediately fell in love with the atmosphere and the people. It felt like home,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew that this transition would be a lot easier for me than attending a larger university.\u201d The next step involved dismantling her own set of negative presumptions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I came here, I expected everyone to have a completely different demeanor \u2014 like I was in a different country almost,\u201d she says, illustrating how imbedded stereotyping can become and how it works from every direction. She steeled herself against having her Eastern Kentucky roots \u201cthrown back in her face.\u201d But instead, she says, \u201cI had a whole system of staff and classmates who didn\u2019t even know me support and push me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relationships she developed became the heart of her progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know my classmates super well,\u201d she says. \u201cI have relationships with my professors that I never thought I would have. I\u2019m not just a number to my professors \u2014 I\u2019m a person, a personality,\u201d she reflects. \u201cI know what my professors like to do in their free time; they know what I like to do in my free time. Just building that connection and feeling like you\u2019re important \u2014 especially in times like this, in a pandemic, has allowed me to work a lot harder and be more connected with Transy than I ever thought I would be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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