Tonya Blanton

“I knew in myself that I could do it,
but I just needed to know how”

A 30-year-old U.S. born woman, Tonya Blanton was the oldest child in her middle-class family.  During Blanton’s childhood, her family moved more than five times.  In second grade, Blanton’s school diagnosed her with a learning disability in math and reading.  Blanton’s second grade teacher told her family, “Tonya will never do anything, because she is too slow.”  In eleventh grade, Blanton dropped out of school.  “Because of my learning disability, I was pretty much kept in the same class.  I was really not able to go anywhere and I got tired of it,” Blanton said.  “But I knew in myself that I could do it, but I just needed to know how.”

After a few unsuccessful attempts at a small adult education program, Blanton got married and had two children.  She worked at a gas station where, she said, “they don’t really see you as a human, they see you as someone who can work three shifts.”  Blanton tried adult education again in part when she realized she could not help her third grade daughter with her homework. 

After starting at North Florida Community College (NFCC), Blanton obtained her GED in five months.  Her teachers saw in her an innate ability to help other students and encouraged her to become a teacher.  Blanton now works as a teacher’s aide for the Adult Education Department of North Florida Community College and in 2006 won the NFCC “Student of the Year” award.   

Words of Encouragement: Whatever obstacles they find in life, if you can’t push through them, you can’t go over them, you can’t go under them then try to find a way around them. 

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