Rhea Wessel - freelance writer, author

New lives: Two-year vocational-technical colleges teach people how to be more productive
Rhea Wessel, Star Staff Writer
07-10-1999

Expired.

"Your son has expired," the nurse told Lisa Joyner, as she lay mangled in a hospital in Etowah county. A young and sober driver had slipped off the shoulder of an icy road, overcompensated and plowed head-on into the family's car.

A couple of dizzy days later, her skull fractured and the right side of her body crushed, a faceless voice on the end of the phone line broke the news.

Mrs. Joyner had been holding little Eric, 9, on her knee. "I knew he had taken his last breath. I saw him vomit," said Mrs. Joyner, tears in her eyes but a smile on her face.

Since March 12, 1993, the wintry day that radically changed her life, Mrs. Joyner has come what she calls "full circle." She has had to potty-train her husband, who barely survived the crash, and give her oldest son, Dayton, a reason to live. He was 12 at the time of the accident and surgeons took their knives to his brain too many times for Mrs. Joyner to imagine.

Somewhere amidst the chaos of her life, Mrs. Joyner found Ayers State Technical College and her ticket to the future. She had been an iron worker and a truck driver, but those were no longer career options for the disabled mom.

"Going to Ayers was the scariest thing I did," said Mrs. Joyner.

Given the obstacles she has overcome, the comment is an interesting one. But Mrs. Joyner said being the 35-year-old, uneducated, scared, jobless woman she was, knocking on the doors of an institution of higher education was extremely intimidating.

"Without it, I would be at home drawing disability and probably be on welfare," said Mrs. Joyner, now 37.

Vocational and technical education play an increasingly important role in today's Information Society. Not everyone fits the university mold, so two-year colleges often take up the slack, offering students the skills they need to make a living or to go on for more education. They are important community institutions, attended mostly by local students who might not otherwise have a chance to pursue their education. And, as in the case of Mrs. Joyner, a two-year college is a low-pressure place to explore personal possibilities.

"Like the banjo, the two-year college is unique to America," said Dr. Ed Meadows, the president of Ayers State. He believes two-year colleges in Alabama and across the country are creating a more stable society.

"We don't cure cancer, but we train and we teach ... productivity creates stability, he said.

"It's the fiber of America. People with jobs are people who can contribute to society. People without jobs create a burden on society."

On Friday, a group of Ayers State students received a pat on the back from Meadows for their contribution to society, to Alabama and to the college.

The students represented Alabama and Ayers State in this year's national vocational and technical competition in Kansas City. The group brought back a busload of national awards, including the gold in cosmetology.

In her job as administrative assistant for Student Support Services at the college, Mrs. Joyner nurtures these winners. Not too long ago, she was standing at the other side of her own desk asking for advice. Now, associate degree in accounting in hand, Mrs. Joyner is preparing to enroll at Jacksonville State University while she continues her job. Her new husband, a 38-year-old mechanic, has decided to improve his skills by enrolling in air conditioning and refrigeration courses at the college.

Each and every day, Mrs. Joyner sees how career technical training improves lives, including her husband's.

"He never had a drive to excel, but now you can't hold him back," she said. Jeff Joyner works for Birmingham-based Hubbard Properties in Anniston and he asked his boss to help him go back to school. Joyner has a 3.89 GPA in his evening classes, has made the National Deans' List and has been inducted into an honor society. For fun, Joyner faxes his in-laws his report card.

"I never thought he could be this excited about something," said Mrs. Joyner, who has a warm glow about her. A tiny scar at the top of her right eye is a small indicator of her suffering.

The Joyners are married for the second time.

They met as teenagers working at the Shoney's in Oxford. She was a waitress and he was a cook. Shortly after the sparks went flying, they married and had their son Dayton. But times were tough for the young couple. They got divorced a short time after Dayton's birth. At 20, the Joyners got back together and Lisa became pregnant with Eric. But issues in the relationship remained unresolved and she took the two children back home to California.

When the accident happened, Mrs. Joyner was married to a great friend, whom the boys had nicknamed "Garlic." He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth when he saw the car coming head-on that day. From the front seat, both saw the accident happening. He looked at her incredulously and she got out the words, "Honey, he's going to ..." right before the slam.

Garlin Clayton finally came out of a coma but was never himself again. For many years, Mrs. Joyner did not want to accept that the man she knew and loved was essentially dead. When she finally did, she was able to be free of the burden of caring for him and enroll in college.

"I never knew that it was OK to think about myself. Ayers made it OK to think about myself," she said.

As Mrs. Joyner was piecing her life back together, Joyner began to help with his son and even cared for Clayton. He brought Clayton Dr. Pepper and M&M's, snack food Mrs. Joyner wouldn't allow. The Joyners remarried in October of last year and Dayton is living with his grandparents in California while he attends a two-year college.

Career technical programs, the preferred name for vocational education, are as ingrained in Alabama's education system as they are in the lives of the Joyners.

With nine technical colleges, two junior colleges, 17 community colleges, one upper-level university and the Alabama Industrial Development and Training Institute, the two-year college system receives 23 percent of the state's higher education budget. Half of Alabama's college students are in two-year schools, which receive $254,000,000 in annual funding.

Statistics show that workers immediately benefit from this investment in higher education. As the sign posted in many high schools says, "The more you learn, the more you earn."

The State of the South 1998 report, a demographic and economic survey, says, "The premium in earnings for education beyond high school has risen sharply over the past two decades ... this provides a powerful incentive to the South's young people to continue their education beyond the 12th grade."

A white male with a high school diploma earned an average of $26,000 in 1996, $33,000 with some college and $41,000 with a bachelor's degree, it said.

The numbers also indicate that Alabama reaps its rewards.

"About 96 percent of students at two-year colleges will stay in Alabama. They will either go on to a university in Alabama or enter the work force," said Meadows, adding, "they are community-based students who live, work and go to school in the community."

Administrators across the state are working hard to integrate career technical programs with high school training and on-the-job experience.

On June 21, Ayers State signed an articulation agreement with Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham. It allows students to transfer their credits into the Physical Therapy Assistant and Occupational Therapy Assistant programs that will soon be available at Ayers via Internet and satellite.

Lynne Smith, who coordinates career technical programs at Anniston High School, said six teachers recently attained the State Department of Education's Business/Industry certification. This gives them industry-wide credentials. Four programs - drafting, industrial electricity, horticulture and business education - were also certified.

Meadows, a veteran two-year college educator, does not underestimate the impact of vocational education. He said, "We are the heroes among higher education because we take ordinary people and we give them the opportunity to do something extraordinary in making a better living for themselves."