As a fresh graduate of Swan Valley High School, eager to have the college experience, Jennifer Newcombe enrolled at a big university downstate and hit the road.
During her first year there, she described the experience as being “a really small fish in a big pond.” Feeling unprepared, she decided she would take just one year off to get her finances in order and relieve some of the pressure she was feeling at the university.
During her time off, love blossomed between her and a guy she met at the university. They were soon married and welcomed their first child into the world. And that one year off from school eventually turned into over 20 years.
“One thing I had regrets about was never finishing my college education,” admits Jennifer. “While we were busy raising the kids, I didn't feel like I could ever get back to college. But we got to the point where the kids were driving, and I stopped running out of reasons not to.”
After learning about the Michigan Reconnect scholarship, she was relieved to see the last barrier to achieving a lifelong dream had finally crumbled away. She applied for the scholarship the very same day and enrolled in classes for the fall 2021 semester at Delta College. Most of the classes she attended were online, but she was able to squeeze in a few in-person classes like ceramics and geology, in which her class took a weekend trip to go hiking and take a boat tour at Pictured Rocks. She advises it’s a fun way to earn a science credit for all those non-science majors out there.
Throughout her time at Delta, she maintained a 4.0 GPA and was selected to join Phi Theta Kappa’s 2025 All-Michigan Team for her academic achievement and community service work as an adoption coordinator for the National Great Pyrenees Rescue and her collaboration with a colleague to partner DuPont with the Great Lakes Bay Veterans Coalition to host hygiene drives and with The Salvation Army to “adopt” families for Christmas each year.
Through tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat, she shared, “I felt like I needed to prove to myself that I could go back to school and be successful. It feels like it was a long time coming.”
Jennifer graduated from Delta College in the summer of 2025 with two associate’s degrees. But her journey did not end there. Knowing she would no longer be eligible for the Michigan Reconnect scholarship after earning a degree, she applied for the Nickless Family transfer scholarship through the Delta College Foundation. To her surprise, she was selected as one of only two recipients for the 2025-26 academic year!
The award came at a pivotal time when Jennifer had found herself, once again, considering taking a year off school before finishing her final year at Northwood University. Just a few months earlier, Jennifer’s father had passed away, and she had taken on the financial burden of his funeral expenses. As she saw the wall of the financial barrier mounting, she grew concerned about the idea of taking on student loan debt—but receiving the Nickless Family scholarship, along with another from the Saginaw Foundation, helped make the decision to transfer an easy one.
In less than a year, she will finally fulfill a 27-year-long dream of earning a bachelor’s degree.
