Richard Pierce
Teacher and Counselor
Huntington College, Ivy Tech, 
Center for Nonviolence, and Park Center

As a minority high-school student in the 1950s, Richard Pierce had little motivation to finish college. His parents hadn’t gone to college; his siblings had attended but not graduated. His parents provided the money for him to attend college for two years, which he did, but after that he quit to take a job as a civil-rights investigator.

“Minorities didn’t see college as a real alternative or solution,” Richard says. “The idea was to get out of school and work. If you could get a good job without college, you just saved yourself some years.” 

Richard had a successful career in human resources at several corporations, but in his fifties he wanted a change. He realized a college degree would give him options.

“My wife had two master’s degrees. My three children had all graduated from college and one was working on his doctorate. My wife asked, ‘Why don’t you go back?’”

Richard did. He chose the EXCEL program, where his past distaste for college gave way to genuine excitement. “It couldn’t have been more different,” he says. “The administration, the professors, and my fellow students were all interested in me as an individual. The school honored our life and work experiences. I began to feel that I must be smarter than I had thought.” 

Since graduation, Richard has pursued two loves: teaching and counseling. “I can’t say it enough: EXCEL changed my life,” he says. “Graduating from Huntington's EXCEL Program, I felt there was nothing I couldn’t do.”

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