SWOCC Alum Publishes Memoir, Feb. 23

News release SWOCC.  Southwestern Oregon Community College’s Distinguished Alumna (2009) Mary Stricker recently published a memoir titled What Price A Dream. What Price A Dream, began as unconnected essays written for a popular autobiography class at Southwestern, taught by Sally Harrold. The essays were written just after Mary retired, well over a decade ago, and wound up in a cardboard box, up on a closet shelf, forgotten. Years later, after reading a few of the stories, Mary’s daughter encouraged her to put them together as a book. She chose to self-publish using an online Amazon-related site called CreateSpace. About Mary Stricker: Mary grew up in the slums of Oklahoma City, the third of four children, whose parents never finished high school, the family barely getting by on her father’s meager earnings as a factory worker. As Mary says “They were concerned about putting food on the table; putting their children through college never crossed their minds.” Throughout public school,even though Mary loved learning about the mysterious world that lay beyond the front door, she was scared and intimidated at the prospect of going to college. Mary explains, “Due to teachers’ urging me to enroll at the University of Oklahoma and major in journalism, I dared dream of going to college. However, during a campus tour, the stately, stone buildings, with their manicured landscapes, and the smartly dressed students combined to make the university feel like a place where I did not belong . . . Scared, I did what far too many young women do; I gave up my dream and got married – two weeks after my seventeenth birthday.” Fast forward to the future. Mary was living in rural Texas and her children were grown and on their own. One evening, at the height of a heated argument with her second husband, with $21 in her purse, she walked out of the house they had built. Three days later, he burned it down. She was forty-five years old and had not had a paying job in 15 years. At the time Mary’s sister lived in Myrtle Point, Oregon. And in one of their phone conversations Mary recalls, “Dreading that my sister might laugh, I ventured, ‘I want to go to college.’ Her response came fast and clear. ‘There’s a community college over in Coos Bay. Move up here. You can stay with us.’ And before I knew it, I was in Southwestern’s cafeteria registering for fall classes!” What followed were four years of full-time classes, living in rented bedrooms, and supporting herself with work study jobs during the school year and motel maid jobs during the summer. After completing her Associate of Arts degree at Southwestern, Bachelors degree at University of Oregon and Masters in Library Science degree from the University of Washington, Mary returned to Southwestern and was hired as a cataloger in the library. Eventually she became the director of the library. After retiring Mary moved back to Texas and began tutoring online for Southwestern’s Writing Center. Regarding her time as a student at Southwestern Mary says, “I believe I would not have survived the four years at the huge, impersonal universities – Oregon and Washington – had it not been for the encouragement and help I was generously given while a student at Southwestern. Instead, I might well have succumbed to that inner voice that told me I couldn’t do it, that I was out of place. And it wasn’t just the faculty. Barely getting by financially, I filled out government applications correctly only because the financial aid staff helped; the women in the cafeteria heaped lettuce into the small bowl each time I came for a dollar salad; an administrator discreetly returned the $6 fee I had paid to attend the Women’s Weekend Conference on campus. My positive experience at Southwestern made me a more insightful and caring librarian, advisor, and tutor. In addition, I have had the honor of giving back by helping and mentoring students, just as others helped and mentored me.”