Student Spotlight: Melissa Round-Fredrick

Bakersfield College is slowly transitioning back to in-person classes and has lifted the

mask mandate from required to recommended. First-time BC student, Melissa

Round-Fedrick talks about the ways COVID-19 affected their academic performance.

“Not only was I 40-years-old braving the big step back into college, but I had to learn

technology and so much at home alone because of COVID-19, this discouraged me a

great deal.”

Round-Fedrick is a face-to-face learner and when faced with a difficult class,

she was unable to get face-to-face tutoring because of the pandemic. It all had to be done through Zoom and that did not work well and she ended up dropping the class.

Round-Fedrick is currently majoring in sociology, “I have been the hands-on caregiver, I

have been the receiving family member, and so on. I want to be a Hospice social worker,

and use my experiences to give compassionate care to others in their time of need.”

According to Fedrick, her late husband wanted her to attend school once again and

continue helping others through education. She thought family and marriage had

distracted her because twenty years ago she was a student like she is now.

“He told me I had spent the first half of my life living for him, taking care of him. He

wanted me to spend the next half of my life really living life, living for me, and living life

to the fullest” she said.

Although there had been rough times for Fedrick she had thought about leaving school.

“In recent months I went through a rut. A tough time in my life that made me not want

to get out of bed in the morning and school was not a priority. I was depressed, and

couldn’t pull myself out of the dark place I was in. I started opening up talking to my

boyfriend, and coworkers as well as a close friend and advice counselor through the

Extended Opportunity Program and Services (EOPS) and I started coming out of this

rut,” she said.

Fedrick mentioned the tremendous help from the BC Extended Opportunity and

Program services (EOPS), Disabled Student Program and Services (DSPS), and the

Renegade Pantry. As for additional resources that could add to her success, Fedrick

hopes BC would provide gas cards that would help not only her, but many other students

too with attending class.

Fedrick plans to transfer to Cal State University Bakersfield, “it is still here in my town,

and I don’t want to travel outside of my town for education at this time in my life. I look

forward to being some sort of social worker, preferably for Hospice” she said.