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Lateshia’s Story

In July, Lateshia D. Beachum ’09 will be flying to Upstate New York to participate in Skidmore College’s prestigious Summer Writer’s Institute.* While Lateshia and supporters like her mother and professors are proud of her accomplishments, the road to Skidmore has been an interesting and humbling journey.

Lateshia describes herself as “a short African-American grad with a big smile who occasionally wears a highlighted afro like a crown and wide-eyes to the world.” She acknowledges that the success she has achieved within the last months could not have happened without the education and support she received at Columbia College and the professors who make Columbia College special.

During her senior year at Columbia College, Lateshia’s mother had a recurrence of cancer that was first found in 2005. With no siblings or other immediate family nearby to lean on, Columbia College faculty became the family that supported Lateshia through her mother’s two hospitalizations. Faculty like Claudia Smith Brinson gave her advice and others, like Dr. Helen Tate, provided her with emotional support. Yet, with the stress of her mother’s health and bills, coupled with some of the hardest courses that Lateshia had ever taken in college, the semester became too much for her to handle. The weight of depression pressed down on her. She took incompletes in three courses. Lateshia questioned her spiritual strength and challenged her belief in those around her. The Columbia College community came to her support without hesitation. “I saw so much positivity from people I didn’t even know,” she said. “That semester really showed me that there is good in people and that they do care. People who didn’t really know me reached out to me in concern. I didn’t expect such kindness from people. I felt like my situation was my own problem to deal with, not a concern for the campus.”
 
The following semester, Lateshia regrouped to complete her courses as a part-time student and was hit with a few pleasant surprises. A paper she wrote on the portrayal of women in The Thousand and One Nights was accepted for presentation to the Sigma Tau Delta Conference in Minneapolis. She found out that she was the Southern States Communication Association’s 2009 Franklin Shirley Award recipient for a paper she wrote about the limits of satire in the cartoon series The Boondocks. “I definitely credit my award to all the support and help I received from Dr. Jason Munsell. He really mentored me in the paper writing process since it was more of a project that Communication majors, not minors, do,” she said.

Claudia Smith Brinson asked Lateshia and another student if they would be interested in attending Skidmore’s New York Summer Writer’s Institute. Lateshia had taken a creative writing course with Brinson in the spring. It was one of the few courses that she held onto in order to cope with the world around her. “Keeping my creative writing class was one of the best decisions I made that semester. Writing my pieces for Ms. Brinson was a therapeutic escape for me,” she said. Yet, Lateshia wasn’t familiar with Skidmore and found that their admission rules allowed only full-time students to apply. Brinson convinced Lateshia that she had the wrong attitude about approaching the situation. Brinson contacted the director of Skidmore’s program to share a sample of Lateshia’s writing and explain her unique situation. Lateshia was granted an exception to apply.

“I knew I had a good chance because my story was so personal to me and I feel like I told the story I wanted to tell,” said Beachum. The story she ended up telling is loosely based on her witnessing her mother losing her hair as a result of chemotherapy treatment on the fourth of July in 2005. “It’s a story I’ve wanted to tell for a long time. I just didn’t have the courage until Ms. Brinson’s class.” Lateshia appropriately titled her story “Independence Day.”
 
But it was in getting to Skidmore that Lateshia began to fully appreciate the role the people at Columbia College have played in her life. “When I first received the e-mail telling me that I was accepted to the program, I was excited and worried that I might not be able to go,” she said. Lateshia received a full-scholarship to the program that covered class expenses and materials but not the $700 cost of room and board or transportation to New York.
 
She told Brinson, who told Lateshia’s advisor and English department chair, Dr. Mike Broome, about Lateshia’s possible inability to come up with $700. To Lateshia’s surprise, the faculty of the English Department donated $400 to help her attend Skidmore. “I am really grateful for the English Department’s help. I don’t know where I would be today without their academic guidance and personal concern,” she said “I know money is tight all around and I know that the English Department didn’t have to donate money for me but I’m glad they did.”
 
Lateshia still found herself in a bind when it came to paying for the rest of Skidmore’s room and board tuition. She was without a full-time job and scrapped by on freelance income for her work at The State newspaper. “I didn’t want to put on bake sales for myself to raise money because the people with whom my mother worked have already been supportive through our trying times,” she said “It just seemed wrong to ask people for money. It still does.”
 
Not completely discouraged, Lateshia wrote and called local writing groups and cancer organizations in search of sponsorships and grants. However, her efforts came to no avail. “I was sure that I wasn’t going to go,” she said “I couldn’t get a loan and I didn’t want my mother to add onto the debt she acquired from her hospital stays. I tried to convince myself that I was okay with not going. I just didn’t know how to tell the English Department that I couldn’t go, even with their help. That was the hardest part of it all.”
 
But, Lateshia didn’t have to tell the English Department that Skidmore was no longer in her future. Just a few weeks ago, she stopped by the Center for Engaged Learning, where she had worked as a Career Peer, and told the staff about her Skidmore woes. Astounded that Lateshia might not be able to attend Skidmore’s program, Dr. Ned Laff went on a crusade to find Columbia College faculty and administrators who might be willing to donate.
 
The following day, Lateshia was shocked to find out that her plane ticket to New York was paid in full. “I can’t believe that these people were so willing to invest in me, especially since I just graduated. I was in shock and on the verge of tears. I know that what has happened to me would not have happened at any other college because any other place is simply not Columbia College.”

*The New York State Writers Institute was established in 1984 by award-winning novelist William Kennedy at the University at Albany, SUNY. The summer program is held on the campus of Skidmore campus in Saratoga Springs, New York and features creative writing workshops in fiction, non-fiction and poetry. An extraordinary staff of distinguished writers, among them winners of such major honors as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, serve as Institute faculty members.