Jan Nerenberg

Nerenberg__jan

“Find your dream. Focus on your dream. Work toward your dream. When there are two positive choices, the one that gets you closer to your dream is probably the right choice.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: Astoria, OR
  • Hometown: Astoria, OR
  • Age: 62

Biography

PROFILE: Jan Nerenberg has a bachelor’s degree, an associate degree and, oh yes, eight children and 20+ grandchildren. If that sounds like a lot of work, you’re right. Jan began her college path a little late in life, but is making up for lost time. When she finally started community college five years ago (and that happened only because an injury forced her to leave her job), she realized she had talent and the intellect to advance in an academic setting. Her first college instructors recognized it too. Fast forward to 2009 and the woman who wasn’t allowed to enroll in college after high school in the 60s, graduated with honors from Pacific University with a triple major in art, creative writing, and literature. She says that lack of funds and a dream created her “audacity” to apply for her original scholarship from the Foundation, which helped her to reach her initial goals and will help further her along the path of her educational and career journey. 

INSPIRATION: Many people have helped, but four stand out among the crowd. First, her mother, “who was the first to believe in me.” Second, Professor Julie Brown, a dedicated mentor at Clatsop Community College, one of the first professors to see Jan’s abilities as a writer. Third, Professor Pauline Beard, who mentored Jan at Pacific, and helped in the period after Jan’s mom then brother passed away.  Finally, Bill, her husband of forty years, who not only encouraged Jan’s return to academia but also made the 180 mile round trip between their home in Astoria and Jan’s apartment in Forest Grove each weekend for two years.
 
ASPIRATION: To teach, to write, to publish, to affect lives for good; she will continue writing, but Jan also hopes to lecture at some point. 
 
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Jan’s obviously made a difference in the lives of her children and grandchildren, but on a volunteer level at Pacific she served as Vice President, then President of an organization called “Connections”, an on-campus club which facilitates inclusion of transfer and non-traditional students into the university’s student body and serves in the Relief Society to assist in the needs of women in the Forest Grove area. 
 
ACCOLADES: Jan was the first ever student from Clatsop Community College to be awarded a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship. She has been invited twice to represent Pacific University at the annual Northwest Undergraduate Council on Literature and has presented both her poetry and nonfiction. Her 2009 art show at the Cawain Gallery received high praise. At Pacific, she earned Dean’s List honors each semester and graduated with high honors. In her graduating class she was chosen and is the recipient of the 2009 “Dean of Students Award” and the “Dean’s Academic Achievement Award.” Jan will also be published in the July issue of NW Literary Review, an online magazine.
 
INTERESTING FACT: She hopes her love of literature and writing will rub off on those she touches, especially children, “to give them a greater appreciation of the world around them.”

Other Scholars Like Jan

Del_mundo_m2_thumb

Miguel Eduardo Del Mundo
Undergraduate Transfer Scholar
University of Southern California

Rasmussen__keely-picture_thumb

Keely Rasmussen
College Scholar
Stanford University

Image_sb_0_thumb

Sharon Ko
College Scholar
University of Southern California

Magogodi_makhene_thumb
  •  

Magogodi Makhene
Graduate Scholar
New York University