{"id":29340,"date":"2019-05-06T12:59:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T16:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=29340"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:11:10","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:11:10","slug":"randi-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=29340","title":{"rendered":"Commencement profile: Randi Thompson: Breaking the cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Randi
Randi Thompson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Randi Thompson will graduate from Carolina with a bachelor\u2019s degree in public policy and a minor in social and economic justice. In doing so, she will become the first person in her family to graduate from college.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

College wasn\u2019t immediately in the cards for Randi Thompson when she finished high school.<\/p>\n

She had a young son and she needed to provide for him. She took a job at a department of social services in Southern Maryland, and after seven years, she decided to make a big change.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day I just came to the realization that I was in a dead-end situation. I knew I wanted a change,\u201d said Thompson, a native of District Heights, Maryland. \u201cComing to college was an opportunity for me to become one step closer to making the world a better place. I wanted to set an example for my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 12, Thompson will graduate from Carolina with a bachelor\u2019s degree in public policy and a minor in social and economic justice. In doing so, she will become the first person in her family to graduate from college.<\/p>\n

Time for a change<\/strong><\/p>\n

After working outside of Washington for so many years, Thompson was looking for a change in scenery and decided to move to North Carolina. She didn\u2019t have a job and hadn\u2019t been admitted to college, but she knew North Carolina was the right place for her. She had fond memories of driving through the state to visit her father, who lived in Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was something about North Carolina,\u201d she said. \u201cThe skies were so pretty and blue. I knew I wanted to be somewhere like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson enrolled at Durham Technical Community College to begin her studies and later started looking to transfer to a four-year university. When she learned that Carolina had resources for students with children, like the Baity Hill<\/a> apartments for families, she knew this was where she wanted to finish her degree. Thompson transferred to Carolina as a Carolina Covenant Scholar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Going global<\/strong><\/p>\n

The journey to Carolina was a long one, but ultimately, Thompson would have to travel another 8,000 miles from Chapel Hill to hit the peak of her academic experience and set her career path on track.<\/p>\n

In May 2018, Thompson studied in Malawi, in southeast Africa, where she studied human rights and democratic governance as an intern with the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, a non-governmental organization.<\/p>\n

With the help of the Center for Global Initiatives<\/a> and the Stone Center\u2019s Undergraduate International Studies Fellowship<\/a>, Thompson\u2019s study abroad expenses were completely paid for.<\/p>\n

Going into the program, Thompson was passionate about education policy in the United States, but her time in Malawi helped her find her niche in global education policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the schools there, seeing how the school system worked there, in comparison to here,\u201d she said, \u201cit definitely opened my eyes to the fact that there were opportunities to connect the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience shaped her career goals. This summer, Thompson will join the Teach for America Corps in Eastern North Carolina, preparing herself for a career as a global advocate and policymaker for education.<\/p>\n

Breaking a generational cycle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carolina, Thompson said, provided her with opportunities she didn\u2019t have nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Because she became a mom when she was 16, she had to grow up faster than most of her peers. Being a student at Carolina allowed her to regain a sense of youthfulness she missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing around so many young, bright people at Carolina has helped me feel young again,\u201d she said. \u201cIt made me proud to be a part of something.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, the accomplishment also represents a break in a generational cycle of \u201cjust getting by in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can do it, it\u2019s possible for anyone,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you are willing to work hard and make sacrifices, you can overcome the barriers to coming to college.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Korie Dean, University Communication<\/span>s<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Randi Thompson will graduate from Carolina with a bachelor\u2019s degree in public policy and a minor in social and economic justice. In doing so, she will become the first person in her family to graduate from college.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,29,21,34,18],"tags":[24,26,330,331,231,338,37,38,39,40],"class_list":["post-29340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-general","category-news","category-news-archive","category-undergraduate-education","tag-carolina","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-commencement-2019","tag-graduation-2019","tag-public-policy","tag-randi-thompson","tag-unc-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-chapel-hill","tag-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49294,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29340\/revisions\/49294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}