Tim Taylor had a goal when he entered Front Range Community College – earn a 4.0 GPA.
“My advisor was very nice,” Tim says, “but he advised against having that goal. He said it was so rare and that it might not be the best thing to focus on in college. I used that as motivation, especially in my biology and astronomy labs.”
Full-Ride College Scholarship
Tim graduated with an Associate of Arts degree from Front Range Community College and transferred to Colorado State University with a full-ride scholarship from the Griffin Foundation. The foundation supports community college graduates who enroll at CSU, the University of Northern Colorado, or the University of Wyoming to pursue a bachelor’s degree.
Academic Success with Homeschooling
He was born in Greeley, but his family moved to the Navajo reservation in New Mexico, where his mother taught school. Then the family moved to Oklahoma City for his father’s job. After his parents divorced, Tim and his mother moved back to New Mexico.
Because of the moves, Tim found academic success in snail-mail programs for home schoolers. When he joined his father in Fort Collins, Tim decided to look into FRCC. His first class was Cultural Anthropology with Jeannette Mobley-Tanaka.
Remarkable Experiences with FRCC Teachers
“After that first semester, I decided the college atmosphere was what I needed,” Tim said. Undecided about whether to pursue an A.A. or Associate of Science degree, Tim took classes that fit both degrees – Archeology and College Algebra. It was the Archeology class – also taught by Mobley-Tanaka – that drew Tim to the A.A.
“The experiences I had with the teachers at FRCC were pretty remarkable,” Tim says. “Now, I want to be a teacher. They helped me figure it out. They want to teach. That’s their only focus.”
Outstanding Student Award
Tim’s focus stayed on the 4.0, and he earned it. He also graduated as the Outstanding Student in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at the Larimer Campus.
Tim was a double major at CSU in history and anthropology.
“I got a wonderful scholarship from the Griffin Foundation,” Tim says. “Pat Griffin’s dream was to teach and educate people, but his life changed when he started working for Phillips 66.” Griffin’s entrepreneurial spirit was manifest when he founded Gas-A-Mat. “And now his dream is fulfilled with the Griffin Foundation scholarships. I’m getting an education because of him.”
Tim graduated from CSU with a 3.85 GPA and is pursuing a post-bachelor-degree teaching license and a master’s degree in history at the University of Northern Colorado.
And he plans to return to FRCC in the fall to take the undergraduate classes in economics and geography his teaching license will require.
