Student Success: Phillip Medeiros
Dec 10, 2021Returning to college, he has found his niche – and it shows
Phillip Medeiros has come a long way, in many aspects.
Looking back, he described himself as “average and forgettable” at the small-town central New Jersey high school that churns out many Ivy Leaguers. He graduated with the Class of 2014.
“I had a couple of jobs in Jersey, but wasn’t happy with what I was doing. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do,” Medeiros said.
His parents suggested he live with them again while he sorted everything out, and recommended returning to school.
Medeiros took them up on their offer and moved to Rockingham County. His parents had not been here long – they relocated here after his sister moved to Greensboro.
In fall 2020, he enrolled in Rockingham Community College’s Information Technology program.
“What I wanted to do was digital forensics. If a company gets hacked, they hire someone to figure out how it happened,” Medeiros explained. “Or law enforcement might have a warrant and needs someone to search a device to see if there’s any illegal activity on it – that’s more of what I want to do, and I would assume they want someone with an IT background for doing that work. RCC is the first step in my journey to becoming that.”
RCC is not the first community college Medeiros has attended. But this time, it’s different. He’s older now. And he’s very interested in his program of study.
“I’ve always gone to classes and not done much else,” he said. “But RCC has been pretty good. The best part has been the professors, Thomas Knight and Lucien Pere. Thomas got me an internship, and Lucien understands what I want to do and has given me a lot of resources. I really hit the jackpot, especially with Lucien.”
And Medeiros has done so well, he holds a 4.0 grade-point average.
He also began an internship with Rockingham County Government in August, and it didn’t take long for them to offer him a permanent position.
“At first I was putting operating systems onto computers. I told them I like to be hands-on, so now they give me broken printers to fix and have me setting up monitors – a bunch of stuff like that. And now I’ll have my own little office.”
In early January, Medeiros will take his CompTIA certification exam, using a free voucher provided by one of the RCC Foundation’s campus grants. And he’s set to graduate from RCC in spring 2022, earning his two-year Associate in Applied Science degree.
His faculty said they believe strongly that he is a fine example of one of RCC’s current students who is not only performing at a high level now, but who also demonstrates strong qualities for his future.
Reflecting on his journey thus far, Medeiros has some words of advice for other students – which is applicable in many areas of life: “Put in extra work and you’ll get noticed. People notice when you try a little harder than anyone else.”
See his story in his own words here:
