Alumni Connection: Tami Allen '20

January 31, 2023

In 2022, Tami Allen '20 completed her nine-year journey in higher education, earning a master of arts degree in human service from Concordia University, St. Paul. A huge accomplishment for any student, it was a promise fulfilled several times over for Tami.

She planned to enroll at Anoka-Ramsey at the age of 17. When pregnancy changed that plan, she vowed to one day get a degree. At the age of 50, working through a divorce and the departure of her grown/ growing children, she started fulfilling that promise to herself and applied at Anoka-Ramsey.

"To be honest when I started college, I didn't think I would even get accepted or pass a single class," she says. "I didn't see myself as educated enough to be accepted to a college. So, when I got accepted, it was beyond.

"One of my first classes was a communications course. I had to give a speech and I was like, 'Oh, I can't do this.' And I got an A," she says. "That professor told me, 'You have something. Don't be afraid."'

Tami's confidence grew from that point forward. She says she felt a shift within herself and started to see that she could achieve her goal of completing a degree. Sharing her own experiences of childhood sexual abuse and trauma in her coursework also helped her connect with a professional calling: a career supporting survivors.

"Because I was a victim of that [abuse] and schools failed me and police officers failed me, I wanted to be a voice for these people who are in this situation and have a hard time getting adults to believe them," she says. "But I didn't know what to do with that. People like [Instructor] Kirsten [Dierking] were there to tell me there are places for me to do this.

''Anoka-Ramsey gave me the strength to believe in myself, to know that my past didn't define me and that what happened to me was actually going to be a resource for me moving forward."

From our first graduates in the class of 1965 to today, Anoka-Ramsey Community College is proud of our alumni and their contributions to our community. Share your story.

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This feature appeared in the Winter 2023 Anoka-Ramsey Community Newsletter. View a full PDF version of this story and additional pieces.