Graduate Profile: Perrine Coppage
posted on Monday, May 13, 2019 in
College News
For years, Perrine Coppage preferred to stay in the background. After high school she worked as a CNA, and though she started nursing school a few times, it never felt like it was right for her.
“One day I realized I want to be able to help people, but in a different way,” she said. “I want to feel like I can do more.”
Perrine enrolled in the Human Resource Management program, which pushed her to think outside the box and learn to communicate. It was intimidating at first, but through the support of instructors like Karen Reynolds, Perrine was able to find her voice and come out of her shell.
She committed to her education, taking every class she could, including summers and Minimesters. She did statistics homework alongside her teenage daughter, and at age 35 joined the RedTail Dance Team.
Perrine is heading to UNI after graduation to earn her bachelor’s. She hopes her daughter, a sophomore at Waterloo East High, sees her pursuing her dreams and is inspired to do the same.
“When you’re at the point where you want to start over and you want to succeed, it doesn’t matter how old you are, or the things that have happened to you,” Perrine said. “If it’s your time, it’s your time. You go ahead and do it.”
Tags
- Graduation
- Human Resource Management