Rebecca Wilson, one of Stamford High School’s dedicated guidance counselors, has received the 2015 Norwalk Community College Distinguished Alumni Award. She was given the award because she is an individual who has gone on and achieved professional distinctions, and is committed to the advancement of NCC. The Award Ceremony was held on May 21, at 4:30 PM at the Norwalk Community College campus.

Wilson tells the story of her success by explaining that she would have never gotten to where she is today without being part of the NCC community. She wants to give the message that NCC is not just a place where kids go if they can’t afford college, or if they did badly in school, and she doesn’t want them to “think it’s a 13^th grade.” Instead, Wilson wants people to know that NCC is an academically challenging school that pushes students to do their best and achieve life goals. “I believe in the school, I believe in what they do, I believe in who they are; I believe it because I’ve been through it and I know what it means and I know what it takes,” she said.

Her story began when she graduated from Stamford High. Her dream was to go away to college and live on campus, but it wasn’t possible because of her financial state; it’s pretty difficult to send six kids through college. Wilson ended up going to Norwalk Community College and in her second semester, she became pregnant and had her daughter the following year. As a teenage mother, Wilson was living alone with her daughter, trying to get an education.

After two years in community college, Wilson graduated with an associate’s degree in general studies and with all the scholarships earned, she transferred to Sacred Heart University where she studied for two years to receive her bachelor’s degree in social work. After two years Wilson graduated from Sacred Heart with the William Pitt Scholarship, which allowed her to get into the advanced studies program at Fordham. There she would receive her master’s degree after just one year of studying. She earned her master’s in social work with a concentration in administration.

After graduating from Fordham, Wilson ended up working with the Stamford Public School System, as a research associate working with district testing. Wilson then decided to go back to school for her sixth year at Fairfield University. In 2007, Wilson started her guidance counselor job at Stamford High School. That same year, she was invited to teach at Fordham Graduate School of Social Services. At this time, she was going to graduate school, teaching a graduate school, working and taking care of her daughter: a student, professor, counselor and mother.

In 2010, Wilson was invited to teach the Human Services class at NCC.  The class she teaches is the class she took that helped her make her decide what program she was going to go into. It’s a full circle, starting at NCC as a student and ending up back there as an instructor. “Teaching the same course that helped me make up my mind about my own career path is one of the greatest things I’ve done in my life,” Wilson said. Perhaps that is why she has been given the Norwalk Community College Distinguished Alumni Award. Her dedication to success and hard work can show students how Norwalk pushes students to success.