Changing direction

High school dropout finds support, path to success at CVTC

By Alyssa Van Duyse

Chippewa Valley Technical College

At a young age, Jeremiah Coey’s mental health sent him down a path of self-destruction.

In middle school, he was diagnosed with ADHD, and by his senior year, he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, admitted to the hospital twice and attempted suicide.

Today, at age 38, he’s preparing to graduate from a local university on Saturday with a bachelor’s degree.

He admits that none of this would have been possible without the persistence of staff and faculty at Chippewa Valley Technical College.

“Basically, my entire life and path that I’m on currently never would have happened if it weren’t for CVTC,” he said. “I had no direction and no avenues for change, and because of the programs at CVTC and the amazing faculty, each step of the way, they gave me the support and direction I needed.”

Direction Unknown

In 2005, just two and a half credits shy of graduating from Colfax High School and struggling with mental health challenges, Coey dropped out of school.

Without a diploma or a job, he found himself homeless and depending on friends for a couch to lay his head. He hadn’t tried drugs until he left high school.

“Once I was a dropout, I had nothing to lose at that point,” Coey said. “It was offered, so I started with drugs and drinking and partying, and that ended up being a 10-year substance abuse issue.”

Throughout the unfortunate twists and turns, Coey was not interested in obtaining his General Education Degree, but people close to him kept pushing him.

Coey is intelligent. His former teachers could see it, and they told him so. But people also told Coey that he wasn’t college material – that he would never make it.

When he applied for CVTC’s GED program in 2009 and connected with Jill Mayer, one of the College’s Adult Education & College Prep Instructors in Academic Services, the path of his life changed, he said.

Growing Support

“When I first came to CVTC, I had a substance abuse problem,” Coey said. “Jill (Mayer) gave me opportunities. That’s been the biggest thing – just having opportunities. Everyone used to talk about all this potential that I was wasting. Well, I didn’t know where to put any of it.”

Coey was in and out of CVTC at that time, never able to finish the program. He struggled to see the value of earning his GED and often dismissed its importance.

Mayer, seeing that Coey would have to retake tests to get his GED if he didn’t come back by 2014, told him about the GED boot camp now called Fast Track.

Coey knew he could pass the tests with little instruction. Instead of sitting with instructors to learn the material, he chose to help other GED students study. That’s when his perception of the task at hand changed.

“Tutoring the other students that actually wanted it and had challenges changed my perspective,” he said. “I saw that these guys really wanted this and are actually trying. Maybe I shouldn’t come in here with the attitude I have.”

Coey remembers one student he was helping didn’t pass two practice math tests. They took their final tests at the same time and when they got their scores back, he learned the student had passed.

“His score wasn’t anything particularly exceptional, but it was passing, and that’s all he needed, and he was so excited to finally pass,” Coey said. “It made me re-evaluate.”

Coey passed all of his tests and obtained his GED at the age of 26. He moved away to get clean and sober, returned to Wisconsin in 2016 and, with Mayer’s persistence, began the University Transfer Liberal Arts program at CVTC in 2018.

“Once he got his GED, I could tell he had the drive and determination to succeed,” Mayer said.

Coey transferred from CVTC in 2020 and continued his studies at UW-Eau Claire that same year.

He was changing his life, one day at a time, but support didn’t come easily from all.

“When I told people I was going to college, they said I was wasting my time and money. But as I got closer to graduating, that changed,” he said.

With determination and the help of scholarships, he completed his degree. On Saturday, Coey will walk across the stage, earning a bachelor’s degree in Professional Studies, and Latin American and Latinx studies, along with a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies.

He credits Mayer and others at CVTC for helping change the trajectory of his life. That wasn’t a small feat, he said.

Mayer caught up with Coey recently via email and learned that she was a large part of his successful journey, she held back tears.

“This is the best Christmas gift ever,” Mayer said. “It’s a special treat to hear the impact. After so many years of doing this, it’s really emotional for me. I never looked at my job as just teaching. A lot of times with adult education, it’s about building confidence. Jeremiah (Coey) had the academic skills. But life situations destroy their confidence.”

A Future of Giving Back

On Christmas, Coey will fly to El Salvador, where he’ll marry his fiancée and begin teaching English—a role he first discovered during a 2022 summer immersion program. “I’ll be volunteering while continuing to study Spanish and waiting for my work permit,” he said.

Coey also has his sights set on the Peace Corps, where he hopes to join the Youth Development program. His goal is to empower at-risk youth, to help them find alternatives and opportunities like he found at CVTC.

“I've always been a person that has had a difficult time with pride and confidence,” he said. “But just recently it started hitting me. Every day it seems like I'm telling people about a new awesome thing that I'm doing, and it's finally started to build up where now I have a new glow. I've done a lot of cool stuff, and I'm about to do a lot more cool stuff.”

Sidebar

Jeremiah Coey didn’t have a solid support system until he attended CVTC, he said. Once someone believed in him, he began believing in himself.

“My support system came as a product of my achievements,” he said.

And although his mental health struggles were known by family and friends, he said he will always be living with ADHD and bipolar disorder.

“A lot of people don’t consider the mental health aspect,” he said in relation to his achievements. “I’m receiving treatment, but there’s a lack of providers. There have been a few periods where I didn’t have (a psychiatrist), so I was forced to go off medication, off treatment and I had to restart again.

“There were multiple times along the way where the actual treatment became more problematic than the disorder it was treating.”

Despite all challenges, Coey has learned to be his own advocate, to ask for help when he needs it, and to believe in himself.

“My current trajectory is nowhere near where I imagined I’d be five or 10 years ago,” he said. “One of the things I’m most proud of is that all of the people who know me now can’t believe it when they hear stories about me in the past, and all of the people who knew me then have a hard time believing where I am now.

“I’ve made extraordinary changes in the right direction and improved every aspect of my life.”