When LaTonya Robertson was 16, her cousin pointed out North Carolina Central University (NCCU).
“This is an all-Black college, an HBCU,” her cousin said.
Robertson was intrigued, having attended primarily white secondary schools. She thought about enrolling, but life delayed her.
Robertson was raised in Dallas but briefly moved to Durham before relocating to Nashville for two years where she completed high school before returning to Durham.
She became a single mother while still a teen.
“My granddaddy said education would be my ticket out of poverty,” Robertson said. So, she asked her mother in Nashville to watch her two kids and went to Durham Technical Community College to attend its certified nursing assistant program. Four years later, Robertson returned to Durham Tech and studied to become a licensed practical nurse and later completed an associate degree in nursing.
Over the years she had four children. One of them, a son, earned a bachelor’s degree in 2018 from NCCU.
Still, Robertson never forgot her own desire to attend a historically Black college and university (HBCU). In summer 2023, she spoke to a friend employed at NCCU.
The friend told her about Project Kitty Hawk, a nonprofit that helps facilitate online classes taught by NCCU faculty to adult learners.
“She said, ‘Tonya, its online, its one year, you wanted to go to an HBCU,’” Robertson recalled. “She talked me into doing it.”
In fall 2023 at age 45, Robertson enrolled in the online RN – BSN program.
She found attending university online was a more independent experience than being on campus. “You have advisors and instructors you can email, but you are really out there on your own,” Robertson said. “It’s not a classroom setting where you can ask to see someone’s notes.”
Some courses were more enjoyable than others. “I like to die when I found out I had to take statistics,” Robertson said. “My advisor at the time said you can do this, you got this.”
And she did. Along with Spanish – which she loved – history, physical education and nursing courses.
Though this was Robertson’s first time taking classes online, she liked it.
“It’s flexible,” she said. “I’m busy. I have two businesses I am trying to get off the ground. I am an all-the-time mom.”
On Dec. 13, Robertson will cross the stage at McDougal-McLendon Arena, one of the first half dozen to graduate with the support of Project Kitty Hawk.
For the future, she would like to leverage her nursing experience into a business and teach certified nursing assistants.
