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Health & Fitness

Community college president once told she was not college material

ANN ARBOR – Rose Bellanca’s leadership journey began when her high school counselor told her she was not college material and suggested she take business courses and marry her boyfriend.

Bellanca said she always wanted to be a teacher and she was until she was tapped for leadership posts which culminated with her appointment to the presidency of Washtenaw Community College in 2011.  Bellanca will deliver the keynote address at the Girl Developers Summit at WCC on March 8 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The Summit is sponsored by Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan.

The day Bellanca met her Kindergarten teacher was the day she decided she wanted to be a teacher and she never wavered.  She had a classroom set up in her basement with a chalkboard and “students” that included her dolls and stuffed animals.

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But, a low SAT score in high school and nuns and counselors who decided she wasn’t college material almost derailed her career plans.

“My mother said the nun must be right,” Bellanca said.  “They pulled me out of all my college courses and told my parents that they better get me into typing and home economics classes.  They also told my mother that the best thing for me to do was to go to business school and marry my boyfriend.”

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She eventually did marry her boyfriend and enrolled in a private business school where she began teaching other students six weeks after starting.  The head of the school suggested that she enroll in Macomb Community College to pursue a teaching degree.

“He told me they take anybody and they might take me,” Bellanca said.  “I met with a counselor and they did take me and that changed my life.

“I graduated from college with a high B-plus and had 3.9 grade point averages in every degree after that.”

Not surprisingly, Bellanca’s presentation to those who attend the Summit will focus on the importance of setting goals and working hard to meet those goals.  She said she began to develop her leadership skills as a young girl by getting involved with clubs and organizations such as Junior Achievement.

She said JA taught her how to work as part of a team and draw on other peoples strengths to develop a concept, turn it into a product and sell it.  Her group’s product was a cookie sheet.  This experience helped her get promoted to floor supervisor at a Kresge store where she worked part time during the school year and fulltime over summer vacation.

She shored up her team building and leadership skills by aligning herself with mentors who gave her advice during various stages of her life and career.

“My godmother was a home economics teacher and she would take me to conferences put on by Detroit Edison and anything that had to do with textiles,” Bellanca said. “As I got older I found other mentors along the way such as the superintendent of a school system where I worked for 20 years.  The president of Macomb Community College has been my mentor ever since I came to community college.

“You learn, you don’t inherit leadership skills but by working with the best and seeing what works and what doesn’t.”

Her leadership journey took her to high schools in the Detroit area.  For her it was all about goal setting.

A more recent goal is the establishment of a curriculum at WCC focused on leadership for girls and adult volunteers with GSHOM.  Girls will be able to take college courses and get credit for them and adults will have access to courses which will teach them leadership techniques.  Girls also will be exposed to female faculty who teach welding and head up the college’s science department.

Jan Barker, chief executive officer of GSHOM, said she works with her program staff to make sure girls in her council have the opportunity to participate in activities designed to draw out and support their leadership skills.  She said her organization’s partnership with WCC will provide even more opportunities for girls and adult volunteers to become leaders.

“I am thrilled and humbled that Dr. Bellanca has chosen to work with us to further our mission to build girls of courage, confidence and character who will make the world a better place,” Barker said.  “This is an incredible opportunity for the girls and adult volunteers we serve.”

Bellanca said Girl Scouting encourages its members to see the potential in every girl and through teaching and mentoring make sure that every girl has the chance to grow and thrive in a safe environment.

“I’ve had a wonderful, wonderful career and I started thinking about where I could make the biggest difference,” Bellanca said.  “I felt I could do this by working with a group that serves girls and women.  If these young girls are going to have the best life possible, personally and professionally, they will need a college education so why not start early and build a career by going to college.

“They get to take college courses at a reasonable rate and then I thought how great it would be to have a cohort of girls who get to know each other better.  After they graduate they could be a networking group.  I would have loved an opportunity like that.”

Instead, Bellanca often found herself working alongside male colleagues, especially when she moved into administrative positions.

“I learned a lot from those men and it made me tougher,” she said.  “I realized that they weren’t going to invite me to anything unless I just showed up.”

Being president of a community college is unbelievable, she said, but earning a doctorate was also a high point.

Her advice to girls and young women:

Don’t listen to others negative opinions of you, especially if it’s something you really want.

Strive to be the best you can be that means:   Don’t compete with others, set your own personal benchmark.

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