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Click on the links below to read about each student's experience at Antioch:
- Debra Sund
Individualized Program: Holistic Early Childhood Education
B.A. Liberal Studies, current student
- Young-wha Coulter
Individualized Program: Social Justice and the Arts
B.A. Liberal Studies, 2007
- Cheryl Honey
Individualized Program: Transformative Community Building and Participatory Democracy
B.A. Liberal Studies, 2006
Debra Sund
Individualized Program: Holistic Early Childhood Education
B.A. Liberal Studies, current student
 If you ask Debra Sund for thoughts on making Antioch affordable, she'll tell you to look into options for financial aid.
"I also recommend asking about awards from smaller organizations in the community. While they may not pay your entire tuition, they may help with books or partial tuition," she says.
Sund, who is completing her bachelor's degree in holistic early childhood education at Antioch, received a 2007 Women's Opportunity Award from the South Seattle Soroptimist Club.
Soroptimist International, a women's service organization for executive and professional businesswomen, last year distributed more than $1.1 million to women around the world who were primary wage earners for their families. The awards are designed to improve women's economic status by gaining additional skills, training and education.
Sund is a single parent of a son with special needs. She has been a preschool family educator for the Seattle Public Schools Head Start program for more than a decade.
Her educational journey began when she started to assist at her son's school. He wouldn't attend without her, so she went along. Soon, teachers gave her work to do. She rapidly progressed from volunteer to paid hourly employee.
Sund's goal is a master's degree or teacher certification once she completes her B.A. She says she chose Antioch because it was a place where she could bring together her prior experience and education and design a B.A. program that would fit her needs. She was able to earn 10 prior learning credits for experiences she had before she joined Head Start.
"These credits assist in moving the degree process forward, but they also validate life experiences that often go uncelebrated. For students with financial issues, they are also are a cost-effective way to reach a credit goal. This is a positive way to help students on their way," she notes.
There are plenty of other reasons why Sund would recommend Antioch to prospective students.
"I have to say I have appreciated the freedom at Antioch and the smaller class size. Antioch has a supportive and comfortable atmosphere for an adult learner.
"All my time spent at Antioch has been a positive progression. One class has led into another and has moved me ever forward. I have had the freedom to try cross-program offerings that have changed my ultimate goal for education," she says.
Her B.A. will meet future federal requirements for those employed in the Head Start program. The value of her Antioch studies runs deeper than that, though.
"I have gained a voice and new confidence in my personal abilities," Sund says. "This, in turn, has contributed to an improvement in the services I provide to the children and their families in my Head Start classroom."
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Young-wha Coulter
Individualized Program: Social Justice and the Arts
B.A. Liberal Studies, 2007
 The first reason Young-wha Coulter chose Antioch to complete her bachelor"s degree is an honest one: "I liked the fact that we didn't have to take tests, nor did we get grades. I have high anxiety when it comes to test taking and I was always embarrassed about my G.P.A., even though it was average."
There were plenty of other reasons as well. "Once I really began researching about Antioch," Coulter says, "I learned the teaching philosophy was very close to mine. An individualized liberal arts education seemed to be too good to be true. I fell instantly in love with the B.A. completion program because of the support and understanding this program has to offer."
Now, when she recommends Antioch to others, Coulter tells them: "First, Antioch is the best education I ever had. Second, it's a lot of hard work, but it's worth it in the end. Antioch will give you a wonderful education, but also will support, show and guide you to see your inner strength as an individual."
She says there have been many faculty members who have helped her along the way.
"Each of them have cheered me on in their own way. Mary Lou Finley, my adviser, was patient and guided me with gentle pushes here and there throughout my whole process. Randy Morris, in his loving way, has taught me to look deep into myself and supported me during my growth at Antioch. He is an absolutely wonderful teacher. However, if you do take classes from him, be prepared to do deep reflection on yourself. It's extremely hard work, but Randy doesn't push you unless you want to be pushed. The B.A. completion program truly is a growing process and the whole faculty supports you in your growth," Coulter says.
In her second quarter, she took a class called Diversity, Power and Privilege, also known as Liberal Arts II. "This class, taught by Wanda Hackett, was a life-changing experience for me. This was the foundation of my experience here at Antioch. It taught me to take my blinders off and see the internalized racism I had toward my Asian community.
"I was adopted as a young child from Korea to a white American family. I hadn't realized how much I pushed my Korean heritage away and how much internalized racism I had toward other Asians until this class when I read A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki and Privilege, Power and Difference by Allan Johnson. These two books opened up a whole new world for me, and I saw the injustice that myself and society was/is doing. Even though it has been hard at times, I can't ever go back, nor do I ever want to. I know that I am a change agent and I will do everything to help society open its eyes, take off those blinders and see what we are doing to ourselves."
Getting credit for life experience was validating for Coulter, who had been a para-educator working with elementary special education children in the Highline School District. She's also a mother and a wife and caretaker to her disabled husband.
"There is something to be said about putting your life experience on paper," she describes. "It gave me value on everything I learned prior to Antioch. I didn't even know I had that much learning experience, until I wrote it down and really looked at my life experience. Before this process, I would just blow off my prior life experience. This process put value to it. It gave my prior life meaning."
Don't ask her to put a value on her Antioch education. "I'd do it all over again," she says. "If you want a program that truly looks at you as a person, knows your name, talks with you, instead of at you, values your opinion, and you get to have an individual program that fits your needs, then the money you put into Antioch is worth it."
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Cheryl Honey
Individualized Program: Transformative Community Building and Participatory Democracy
B.A. Liberal Studies, 2006
 Weaving webs of support to create caring communities won Antioch B.A. graduate Cheryl Honey of Bothell a prestigious 2007 Jefferson Award for her public and community service.
Honey created the means for people to have a voice and to leverage change through a design called Community Weaving. It all started when the mother of four organized her neighbors into a strong support network. Soon, it became a bigger neighborhood gathering at a local elementary school.
The neighbors took inventory of their strengths and assets and discovered many had faced similar life struggles: job layoffs, vandalism, parenting frustrations, health issues, alcoholism, domestic violence and more. They began to share resources with one another and formed the all-volunteer Family Support Network with Honey as community coordinator. By the end of that first year, the network had more than 300 members.
"Community Weaving created the space and conditions for people to tap their creative genius, organize with others who shared similar passions and realize their dreams in the world. This support network takes open space to the community level," Honey says.
"It was serendipitous that I ended up going to Antioch. I didn't know what a liberal college was at the time. I do now. The Art of Learning and Social Movements course opened my eyes to the injustice in our world.
"I began understanding why there was so much resistance from systems to connect people together. I met Peggy Holman, an open space practitioner, in my large group interventions class and I had an ‘aha’ moment.
"My advisers – Mary Lou Finley, Anne Harvey and Marv Thomas – saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. I didn't grasp how to make this grow. They made me stretch into new dimensions of understanding. I learned how to trust. I didn't have that before Antioch.
"My advisers taught me I had special gifts to offer this world and I didn't have to ask for permission to make my unique contribution. That's the key that Antioch gave me to unlock my potential.
"It has been interesting these past few months as I realize all these change masters I studied at Antioch are now my colleagues. Dick Axelrod told me at the Nexus for Change conference that whatever I'm charging it isn't enough for what I have to offer.
"Peggy Holman invited me to submit a chapter on Community Weaving and it was incorporated into the new Change Handbook (2nd edition) as a structural design change method. I now travel the country training Community Weavers how to implement Community Weaving in their communities," she says.
Honey also offers certification training in Community Weaving in the Seattle area. Visit www.communityweaving.org for more details.
Honey and the four other recipients of the Jefferson Award were honored at a CityClub luncheon at the Westin Hotel in early April 2007. The annual awards are sponsored by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Microsoft Corp. and pay tribute to those who make a difference through community service.
Honey also has been invited to the White House to participate in the White House Compassion in Action Roundtable. She is briefing staff of Faith-Based Initiative and Corporation for Public and Community Service on how to build community capacity using the Community Weaving model.
"I'm getting closer to achieving my goal of serving as an adviser to the feds to shift the paradigm of service delivery from reliance on government to empowering people to share resources and help one another," she describes.
Honey credits Antioch for helping her find her way.
"I wouldn't be here if Antioch hadn't galvanized all my knowledge," she says. "Antioch is the best thing that ever happened to me. It wasn't always comfortable, but it stretched my understanding of the conditions and realities of people's lives."
Note: Antioch students and alumni may sign up for free as Good Neighbors at www.familynetwork.org. Enter group ID: AUS (all caps).
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