In 2015 I re-entered my academic journey after having read my great-aunt’s book in its entirety. Realizing she was accepted to USC in 1923, transferred to UCLA, and then graduated from Northwestern was incredible to me. Suddenly the family academic bar had been raised and everything seemed so much more possible. I lived close to Oxnard College in California, and met with a counselor who advised me of the quickest way to gain admission to a four-year university. California State University and the University of California systems required having met a certain level of math credits for entry. I enrolled in the maths program at Oxnard College, and while I appreciated the help I received, I was looking at more than a year of mathematics to meet the requirements to be able to apply to California State, or University of California schools.
One day I was talking to a client of mine (Karen) who had been a Counselor at Ventura College and she let me know that oftentimes private universities, depending on the chosen field of undergraduate study, do not have math requirements. My first thought after this revelation was, I wondered if there was a Huntington University. I had recently become fully aware of my Huntington lineage, and contacted Dr. Catherine Allgor, who was at the time the Nadine and Robert Skotheim, Director of Education at the Huntington Library. Dr. Allgor has since gone on to become the President of the Massachusetts Historical Society. She contacted the Archivist at Huntington Library who validated my lineage to Henry E. Huntington, my 3rd cousin, five generations removed. I was thrilled to find Huntington University in Indiana with an undergraduate program fully available online.
In 2015 with enough credits earned over the years at Ventura College, I applied to finish an undergraduate degree and on November 15, 2015, I received a letter of acceptance.
My academic journey from the beginning has been coupled with a desire to associate my family history/lineage with each place that I have studied and the countries to which I have traveled. Beginning with Huntington, Indiana, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=71299 named after Samuel Huntington, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and my Great-Uncle, five generations removed.