Spring 2024 Newsletter

Carla Galaise: Celebrating Learning and Life

CT State Northwestern 2024 graduate Carla Galaise had a passion for learning as early as grade school but growing up in a family with extreme ideologies and mental illness – where any level of secular learning wasn’t valued – was hard. Although she was allowed to go to school, succeeding wasn’t expected or encouraged, and certainly college was out of the question.

Despite the odds, single mother Galaise has successfully graduated this spring and completed the first step in pursuing her dream of higher education and securing a future for herself and her son. The next step was recently made a lot easier when Galaise was named a 2024 Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholar this spring. The award makes her eligible to receive up to $55,000 per year in scholarship as she continues her undergraduate studies. She is one of sixty scholars awarded out of 1,700 applications received nationally. She is the only recipient in Connecticut. Galaise was accepted to Stanford University and will be moving with her son to California this summer to pursue a degree in Anthropology.

Early on in her community college career at Northwestern Galaise made an impact on faculty and fellow students at the campus level. But she also affected change and gained recognition at the state level as well. As elected chair of the Connecticut Board of Regents (BOR) Student Advisor Committee (SAC), Galaise represented all 55,000 community college students in the state. She also served as a legislative intern at the State Capitol during the spring semester. Whether within the classroom, the legislative sessions, or BOR meetings, Galaise listened, learned, and spoke out on what matters to her and her fellow students.

After graduation, she reflected on how her experience as a student and her time in state service as both a voting member on the BOR and as a legislative intern impacted her school career and her life.

Question: What do you feel you have been able to accomplish while serving as Student Advisory Chair on the Board of Regents?

Galaise: I do really feel like I’ve made an impact for students across the state by making a difference in the cultures of SAC and the BOR. This was a very difficult year for CSCU, and a lot was on the line. There were many difficult decisions to make along the way about tuition, contracts, budgets, etc. and a lot of work that needed to be done to make it out on the other side.

When I first became Student Regent, I discovered that everyone- system office, staff, faculty, and students- were working towards the same goals and on the same team.

Keeping that in mind, I wanted to advocate for students by attempting to build bridges through more connection to the student perspective and story. I really feel like I helped accomplish that, and feel we are lucky to have leadership who have the same goal in mind.

Question: What was your greatest lesson in that role?

Galaise: It’s impossible to choose one greatest lesson! I learned just how very important advocacy is and took the initiative to explore these issues as much as possible to make educated decisions that are in the best interest for students. Period.

The path to success as a group is collaboration and raising your voice, but it’s rarely the easiest path and takes a lot of hard work, constant presence, and proactive searching for answers to problems.

At times, it had been overwhelming – taking it all in with all the different perspectives and opinions – and then filtering it down. The biggest issues that came up involved a significant amount of research and exploring beyond the ideas any one individual presented. Thankfully, I discovered through this experience that I have a passion for that, which is just one of the great lessons and skills I’ll be taking with me. It was a lot of work, but I feel I did my due diligence to the best of my current abilities, and I found that really fulfilling.

Question: How was your tenure at the state capitol as a student intern? What did you feel you accomplished there and what was your greatest lesson learned in that role?

Galaise: My time as an intern was a fascinating one. My greatest accomplishment went hand-in-hand with my experience with the BOR. I learned what representation looks like in our state government in the day to day – and being an intern put me in a safe position to really observe that stuff that can’t be learned from a textbook.

I also had some tangible, exciting successes though. I successfully wrote a handful of Joint Favorable reports that are now permanently attached to bills. That report is where the public testimony that is received during the Public Hearing is summarized. I went into the entire internship with very little knowledge, and came out with an immense amount of knowledge, and my questions only multiplied. That’s how you know it’s a good learning opportunity- when you come out with more questions than you went in with!

My greatest lesson in that role was that it is okay to not fully understand everything that is going on around you- most of us don’t have most, and certainly not all, of the information. Once I had one question answered, five more popped up in its place. My experience emphasized why I love learning so much- there are endless things to learn about in this world, and that’s what’s so exciting about life. What’s important is having the curiosity and drive to keep exploring.

Question: On a local level, what experiences on campus helped to shape your success?

Galaise: Outside of the classroom, being a mentor in the mentoring program tied to the CCS (College and Career Success) class really helped shape my success. It helped me to practice communication skills and develop meaningful connections with all different types of people to help them reach their own personal goals.

I had the opportunity to really hear the stories of almost fifty students- in real time- to get them the support they need on campus. It’s been a wild ride – I’ve met all different types of students, from all walks of life, from different campuses, too.

These personal connections to so many students, including people I might not have naturally connected with – helped me to become so much more empathetic and understanding of the greater whole that is community college.

It helped me to see that almost all community college students have something they are navigating and battling, but they keep showing up. I heard the stories, again, in real time, of just how difficult that is, from drug addiction, mental health issues, to facing homelessness or food insecurity, or balancing multiple jobs and families. This was instrumental to me representing other students on the BOR.

I didn’t just know other students’ stories, I felt them, and understood just how complex, deserving, and diverse community college students are. It emphasized for me just how important it was for me to advocate for all the different voices. They were counting on me.

Also tied to this were my weekly meetings with Dr. Rooke to make sure everything was on track with this new mentoring program. These meetings with him were everything! He was a sounding board, helping me navigate not just the complexities of supporting other students but genuinely supported me in balancing out all of my own responsibilities. I knew I could always count on him for help and for advice, and he approached every issue so thoughtfully and respectfully. He really genuinely believed in me, and that has made all the difference. It says everything that our campus president genuinely cares so deeply about students! I admire his approach to leadership, and hope to one day have such a similarly caring approach – as he does to everyone he works with.

Question: What advice would you give to someone who was considering going to college but was concerned about doing well, possibly fitting into a college environment, and just taking the leap.

Galaise: I love this question, because the concern with fitting in is very real and a valid concern.

As a single mother that was a good ten years older than traditional students, it was one of my concerns. I was very self-conscious of it, honestly, especially as the majority of nontraditional students take online courses as they manage families, jobs, and other responsibilities – and it appeared that we were few and far between. But we are not at all! It might take a semester to find your footing, but being with people that are different from you actually helps reinforce your own identity and encourages pride and gratitude in that. No one has lived life the way you have, and even if you have the craziest life story in the world, you will still find people you can relate to at Northwestern.

Community college is a wonderfully safe place to explore your identity and learn more about the world with so many resources at your fingertips- from professors that genuinely want to see you succeed, to basic needs support, to opportunities for exploring and growing. Also, being a nontraditional student, I’ve been something like an aunt to many traditional students, which has been a fun experience in itself. It’s a very affordable option, with many students going for free. Also, something I didn’t know about- you can take out student loans for living expenses. If you’re older and want to crank out that degree, you can prioritize school through school loans, with very little or no interest. For me, that was a game changer!! I did not even learn about this until a couple of years into taking a class or two a semester while balancing a full-time job.

Question: What are your long-term goals for your future?

Galaise: I’ll be honest, they are very fluid. I’m sure it’s a trauma response. I’ve always been like that, but it’s one of those skills that honestly, I recommend to a degree. I set very specific, huge goals, though, and everything else surrounding it is fluid. Then I just work towards them every day. I have a select few things that I know I will accomplish, for example, getting my doctorate’s, one day becoming a professor, and becoming an author. I feel like being a professor and author will be my side projects and they won’t be my career. I don’t think I have enough knowledge to really understand where I will be within the anthropology world – it’s something that is beyond my current comprehension, which is actually very exciting to me. I know I want to make a difference in the world, whatever that looks like, something to inspire people. I see myself immersed in the world of higher education and research.