“It’s never too late to go back to school.”

Molly Gillies-Lange’s Story

Molly Gillies-Lange is a 31-year-old SC4 student who is finishing her associate’s degree in business administration while working full-time as the AM manager at the Raven Café.

Molly grew up in Waterford, Mi and graduated from high school in 2011. She’s a first-generation college student and attended Macomb Community College from 2015 to 2016, studying psychology, and briefly attended Central Michigan University. However, Molly feared the price of a four-year college and didn’t want to go into debt to pursue her education, so she didn’t continue. Instead, she made a career for herself as a bartender, server and manager at different restaurants, which she has done for 15 years.

She lived in Nevada for a time, but moved back to Michigan to be with her family during the Pandemic. Molly met her fiancé (who also attended SC4) soon after, sold her house, and moved to Port Huron to get a fresh start. She knew that she wanted to go back to school and do something that could help people, but she wasn’t sure what. When Molly heard about the Michigan Reconnect Program, she knew she could go back to school and get her degree without going into debt.  

“It’s just never too late to go back to school and better your life. Even if you went to school for a little while and decided that’s not what you wanted to do. It’s just never too late. You can be successful and go back later in life, especially with all these tools available.”

Molly found success through online courses at SC4, highlighting them and the support she received from college faculty and staff, tutoring and in-person proctored exams at SC4 as key factors. “I’m an older student. I’m turning thirty-two this year. In-person schooling is just a lot of commitment on my time that I don’t really have to support myself financially and have a full-time job. So, it’s been really helpful that I can take my classes and do my time after work…It’s been extremely helpful for me. I work 45-50 hours a week, but I can still manage a full class schedule because I can manage my time how I see fit.”

“SC4 is a great school…Everyone is super helpful there. I haven’t had one bad interaction.”

Molly completes her associate’s degree in business administration this summer after she finishes up her final classes. She’s continuing at the University of Michigan on an academic scholarship and hopes to work in business administration, maybe even working towards her master’s degree.

Interested in hearing more about Michigan Reconnect and other financial aid opportunities at SC4? Click here!