In 1966, I graduated from a segregated high school after having attended a two room elementary school. I graduated third in my class. I performed well enough on the SAT's to receive a national merit commendation for minority students. Nevertheless, my scores fell below the admissions standards for many of the schools to which I applied. 

It was a long time before I again achieved the same level of academic success that I had in high school. In college, my English teachers all told me I could not write -- and I believed them. In fact, I spent most of my adult life avoiding writing. If anyone had told me that what lawyers do is write, I would have never gone to law school. 

While majoring in nursing, I was counseled several times to consider another career. In fact, I failed medical-surgical nursing twice. Had it not been for a nursing educator who decided to teach me "how" to study, I likely would have never graduated. Eventually, I did graduate from the University of Texas with a 2.3 grade point average (GPA). 

In 1978, I decided to attend graduate school. However, two small things stood in my way: my low undergraduate GPA and my low Graduate Record Exam (GRE) score. When I could not get admitted to the University of Washington, I made a special trip to meet with the Dean and asked her whether having me -- with my low grades and GPA -- was worse than continuing to have a community health program with no black students. She apparently decided that I was worth the risk. I did not disappoint her faith in me because, even though I was placed on academic probation the first semester, I eventually graduated.