Graduation at Madison College: Against All Odds
A returning adult student to UW-Madison this fall to study Mandarin, Char Braxton has soared above the low expectations her high school counselor had for her as a teenager.
By Jonathan Gramling
Who knows what kind of contribution Char Braxton could have made to Madison and the world if she hadn’t experienced the barriers that she did to attaining her college degree. Braxton, a life-long resident of Madison, like many students of color at the time, was discouraged from obtaining a college degree.
“I feel that a lot of the barriers that happened, sometimes they were created by society, like the way that the system was set up or sometimes I believe because of the things that we were told by others served as barriers,” Braxton said. “My high school counselor told me that I was not college materials. Those words just ripped open my heart. I could just see the words bouncing off of the ceiling. And there was a lot of darkness and then just assistance that was a part of my life.”
Braxton exhibited the traits of being college material. She loved to read and write poetry and visited the library often. And it was at the library that her fortunes turned towards the better.
“The trip to the Goodman South Library one time led me to an area where I saw a flyer that said, ‘Free Trip to College,’” Braxton said. “I was so ecstatic. I just felt that God was talking to me. And I applied immediately. I had Chris who was the librarian at the time help me out with my essay because you are required to write an essay. I submitted it and there I was, in the Odyssey classroom. Just being exposed to different writers and learning about the fact that as a woman of color that there were other writers out there like Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. Just getting that validation that I was a writer too was important even though I was told I was not college material.”
Braxton went on to the Odyssey Onward Program and it looked like Braxton would finally earn that college degree. But a traumatic personal event happened in Braxton’s life that derailked her higher education dreams.
“Life happens,” Braxton reflected. “My grandma passed away. That took a lot out of me. My grandmother was my lifeline. I had lived with her for so long. My grandmother taught me a lot about perseverance and reading The Word and keeping focused. When she went on to her new life, it hit me hard. But I was able to get through that. I was able to start applying to my life what she taught me. I hadn’t been applying it. I got back up and scrapped my knees and said, ‘Lord Jesus, I am your daughter. I know you have a plan for me.’ And so, I just started listening to motivational material and reading my Bible and just getting involved in the community. That was another thing. My grandmother took me to visit the sick and shut-ins after church. We would go and sing songs. I could look into the eyes of the people there and see the sparkle in their eyes when we came in the door and when we sang songs and when they joined in. Little did I know at that point in my life that my grandmother was teaching me about giving back to the community.”
With the proper support and returned resolve, Braxton gave higher education another try.
“I started as a special student at UW-Madison,” Braxton said. “I picked a Chinese language class. Why? There was something inside of me. I remember reading a book when I was younger and it was about a mirror in the lake. And it happened to be over in China. And then when I was looking at the different courses that were available as a special student, it just did something to me when I was reading the description of the course. Butterflies were just inside of me waiting to get out. It was a six-credit course. It was a beast. And there I was in the college library on Bascom. I completed the course, happily with an AB. And the people I met, the community and just learning about a different culture and opera and arts and crafts, it just made me want to explore the international side of being in a community, whether it was right here in Madison or outside of the country.”
When Braxton applied to UW-Madison as a regular student, she was not admitted. Undeterred, Braxton enrolled as a Madison College liberal arts transfer student with the aim of transferring to UW-Madison when she graduated.
“The first semester, I joined the STEM and the science club,” Braxton said. “People were asking me, ‘Why are you joining those clubs?’ I said, ‘I want to meet new people and I want to do things that are new to me.’ I really enjoyed being in the club. We took trips and basically I learned more about the sciences and engineering. Had it been that I was just coming right out of high school, I would have gone for a bachelor’s of science. But because I was a returning adult and I was looking at my timeframe, I was like, ‘No you have to go for the bachelor of arts. There are some gifts that God gave you and you need to hone in on those gifts.”
Braxton had always enjoyed writing and so she began to focus on developing her writing talent.
“I was at a conference for writers here in Madison,” Braxton recalled. “They held it yearly. The coordinator of the conference would come out to the classroom and do her song and dance. I went so that I could just expose myself to a whole different arena. A lot of those people in there thought I was an author. Someone at one point came up to me and gave me their manuscript. They thought I was an agent. It was awesome because I learned about different writers go through. There was a lot about plots, and characters. They had agents come in and they had workshops on self-publication and working with some of the big publishing houses. I learned a lot. I kept going and I became known as The Encourager. I would just encourage people. They had a contest and it was in non-fiction, fiction and poetry. I finally got up enough nerve to enter the contest. I found out later that when the judges look at your material, it’s anonymous. I won first place for poetry.”
Braxton was so overwhelmed that she couldn’t get up to receive the award and so they brought it to her table.
Braxton’s writing talent also brought her recognition at Madison College as well.
“I was invited to be in the honors program,” Braxton said. “It’s by invitation only. The whole time I was there, I had perfect honors and high honors. I was part of the college project, The Honors in Action Project. This is where the administration comes to you with a topic. And as a team, we basically tackled the topic. One of them was mental awareness. That’s what we chose. That topic ended up in the student scholarly journal. We were recognized. Our topic this past year was about transportation. I was nominated Most Distinguished Member of Phi Theta Kappa for the whole Wisconsin region. We also went to what is called Catalyst. It’s like the Oscars of the honors program. You go just to go. We weren’t expecting our names to be called because one of our projects only placed second in the Wisconsin Region. They called our name. We jumped and we yelled. I do have a photo of that too where I am receiving the award for our team because it was a team effort. And Madison College was Most Distinguished and we ranked 52 internationally.”
Braxton was never deterred by this point. If she couldn’t get the material on her own, she got the help that she needed to not only pass, but to achieve.
“I reached out to my TRIO counselor,” Braxton said. “During COVID-19, Madison College was open for students who had labs and had to graduate. She reached out to me and said that she would print out all of my science and my labs for me. Every Wednesday, in the midst of the pandemic, I would meet her at Madison College. We would go over my material. I reached out to my instructor whom I met with at least three times per week. I wasn’t doing great at first in the class. Honestly, if it would have been mid-terms, I probably would have had an F. But what I did was say, ‘I’m just going to focus on the material and complete it and use all resources that I can.’ I ended up getting an A in my science class.”
Braxton gets her determination from her ancestors.
“You have to, what I call, ‘Cross the Ohio River,’” Braxton said. “And I use that river as a symbol. Back when we were in the North and the South and we had people who were enslaved, they had to basically save up clothing and food and when they crossed that Ohio River, it was their ticket to the North. They crossed when it was frozen. I can’t imagine being out on a journey where you don’t know what is going to happen. I said, ‘If our people can cross the Ohio River, Char can complete her liberal arts degree at Madison College and continue on with her dream.”
Braxton applied to UW-Madison and was accepted this time around.
“Tears just flowed out of my eyes,” Braxton said about reading her acceptance letter. “I knew I would eventually get there if I continued on my journey and didn’t give up. So yes, I’ve already met my academic advisor in the East Asian Languages classes. I met her twice. She remembered me. She was so happy. And she even said, ‘Char, I knew you would be back.’ I start SOAR on June 26th. I’m already getting my vocabulary cards ready for each of my chapters in my Chinese language course book so that I can be prepared. I’m just familiarizing myself with the campus from a different lens. I’m going for dual majors in Chinese language and creative writing.”
Always being prepared, Braxton has contacted her future professors to get samples of their syllabi and is taking notes. And she is already planning to study abroad in Singapore where they speak Mandarin.
“One of the students that I interacted with and I’ve become close with came to America from Beijing in 2017,” Braxton said. “That was the same year I came back as a returning adult. I’ve taken him in as my little brother. He has not been back to China since. COVID-19 has happened and there is a lot of educational opportunities here. He was telling me, ‘Char, one of your good choices also would be Singapore.’”
Braxton said she feels like a butterfly, going from flower to flower she is so happy. If only that discouraging high school counselor could see her now.