A person might not always land where they originally thought they were going to, but sometimes, they land where they need to be, as seen with Tina Powell, the campus Academic Affairs manager at the Mid-Ohio Valley Campus.
Powell was born and raised in Delbarton, West Virginia. In her senior year of high school, she didn’t even think about what school she wanted to go to. Little did she know she would find Marshall and still be a part of the school so many years later.
“In my senior year, I had not even thought about college at all. Everybody started talking about it and everything, so I was like, ‘Oh? College? Can I go to college?’” Powell said. “I decided to put in a couple applications. I can’t even tell you what applications I did, but there’s one school that stuck out, and that would be Marshall University.”
Powell went to Marshall to study computer science before switching her major to criminal justice and ended up getting her legal assistant degree. Then, after working for 10 years in law, she found herself again at Marshall.
“I graduated with that, and then I met my now ex-husband and had three kids, and then I got a job at Marshall in 2013 after working in legal for over 10 years,” Powell said. “I decided I was done.”
Powell said after she became an employee for Marshall, she went back and got her regents bachelor’s degree, went for her master’s and then was going for her doctorate until she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I had taken my first semester of classes, and I was really excited, and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Powell said. “I finished my fall semester during chemo. I had chemo and radiation and did pretty good. The new spring semester came, and it was a little rough, so I had to drop out.”
During her treatment, Powell was also raising three kids she had with her ex-husband and working whenever she could.
Powell said the moment that changed her life was going back to Marshall and finally deciding to be just “Tina” after working in law and living in Barboursville.
“I have lived in Huntington since 1994. I never went back, and at that point, I was like, ‘Okay, I want to move closer to my mom. I want to finally be Tina instead of Mom again,’” Powell said. “Actually, I didn’t want to. I had to.”
Powell said Marshall feels like family and she has always had a strong sense of pride when it comes to her school, just like she had when she was in high school. With her youngest son coming to Marshall, she said she still loves Marshall.
“When I came here, I found a freedom, and I found myself. I absolutely loved, loved, loved being a Marshall student, and I feel in love with Marco. Marco, he’s the man,” Powell said.
She said now after being a mom to her kids and being the mom in all the places she’s worked at, she’s glad to be the “Mom” of MOVC. With being the new campus manager for MOVC, not only is she helping around the campus, but also helping all the students that attend MOVC.
“I feel like I could have done a lot of things, but I have a heart for students. I need to be with students because that’s what I’m called to do – is to be there for students,” Powell said.
Soleil Woolard can be contacted at [email protected].
