Find out today how an education at TCTC will get you ready for an immediate career path.
With dozens of clubs and organizations here, we make it easy to get involved!
Find out today how an education at TCTC will get you ready for an immediate career path.
With dozens of clubs and organizations here, we make it easy to get involved!
Department Head, Online and Hybrid Education, Arts and Sciences Division
E.D.D. in Applied Learning Sciences, University of Miami
Doctor of Philosophy (psychology), Walden University (ABD)
Master of Arts in Forensic Psychology, Argosy University
Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, Colorado Technical University
Dr. Stacey Frank was overcome with pride – and emotion - as she listened to former student and current TCTC employee Robyn Westmoreland talk at a first-gen celebration about the influence a former professor had in her life and her career. Westmoreland, technical services coordinator and work study supervisor for the Learning Commons and a 2015 alumna, said, “TCTC made such an impact on me that I wanted to work here. I want to do for students what instructors like Stacey Frank did for me.”
“I identified with Robyn’s struggles as a first-gen student,” said Dr. Frank, who also didn’t have parental support as she entered college as an undergraduate out of high school. “My parents didn’t understand my desire to pursue higher education and didn’t support me financially as I began a bachelor’s degree at the University of Miami. They questioned the time, energy and money required for an education.”
Her father, a master carpenter, and her mother, an administrative assistant at the University of Miami, had done just fine in the workforce, relying on their high school diplomas. Luckily, tuition was free to children of university employees, so Dr. Frank enrolled debt free as a history/pre-law major. She juggled - at times - multiple jobs and was a member of the university’s rowing team, while living at home. Unfortunately, this didn’t leave time for studies and her grades suffered at the close of her freshman year.
“High school was easy for me, and I didn’t have to study. But when I got to college, I realized it was required. I needed to learn how to learn. I also realized that people learn differently,” said Dr. Frank.
Under the freshman forgiveness program, she attended classes during the summer to boost her GPA to reenter as a sophomore.
But as her junior year approached, she became overwhelmed again and dropped out and enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 20 - with two and a half years of college under her belt. She served in ROTC in high school, and she always had the goal of being accepted into officer candidate school and joining the Marine Corps Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG).
While stationed in California, she met and married her husband, a fellow Marine. In 1997, she was injured during a training exercise, breaking her hip and suffering multiple leg fractures. For more than a year, she fought the military on separation, as being a lifelong Marine was the ultimate dream. Unfortunately, the Marine Corps did not agree, and she was separated as a service-connected disabled veteran.
She began working in emergency management and, “I realized I needed to go back to college.” She began pursuing an undergraduate degree in criminal justice.
Now married with children and living in South Carolina, she began to volunteer with CASA family systems, a private, not-for-profit organization serving Bamberg, Calhoun and Orangeburg counties whose primary focus is providing prevention, advocacy, and intervention to individuals and families who have been affected by sexual assault, family violence, and/or child abuse and neglect. She worked as a guardian ad litem and public information director and became fascinated by the work and how she could contribute positively to her community.
She began teaching classes for the organization. “In every role, I became a train the trainer and I discovered it was a natural fit,” she said. In spring 2011 she became an adjunct psychology teacher for TCTC and joined the faculty full time in 2014.
Dr. Frank makes it her mission to be accessible to students who don’t have family support like she did and who need to talk. “I see the signs of self-doubt when they are struggling and I make a point to talk with them on a regular basis. During our conversations, I tell them my story and they see themselves. Like me, many of their families don’t find value in education,” she said.
“I always tell them, failure is where you learn. Go head first into something, instead of stepping back. If you are unsure of your career choice, take electives. Find what you enjoy.”