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TCC 50 Notable Alumni

50th Anniversary Notable Alumni Feature Jolie Olsen, M.S.C.S.: Jolie’s path to better future was through �ǿմ�ý. After graduating from the �ǿմ�ý Jobcorps Center and earning a high school diploma, she had enough courage to enroll at TCC. “I didn't really believe education was possible or attainable for me before TCC,” she said. “I wouldn't have entertained the idea, but TCC somehow made it seem accessible to someone like me, and I gave it a shot. I owe much of my life and opportunities to TCC and I will be grateful throughout my life that this institution exists.”

She earned a 4.0 majoring in Mathematics in 2007 and volunteered a great deal of her time tutoring other TCC students in Math and Science for free so that they would have a better chance of success, too. Then, she was awarded the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, the largest and most prestigious community college transfer scholarship in the United States worth up to $120,000 to complete a bachelor’s degree.

Jolie went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a master’s in Computer Science. After completing graduate school, she lived in Ireland and published two academic papers in the field of Artificial Intelligence. A job offer in Silicon Valley as a software engineer put her work on obtaining a doctorate on hold. Now, she’s left her job and saved enough money to pursue her dream of writing a novel.

“This is a book about finding hope and happiness in dark situations,” she said. “I sincerely do not believe I would have received an education without TCC, and thus none of these things would have been available in my life. TCC helps people have the ‘revelation’ that they can change their lives, that they aren’t ‘stuck’ and without control over where their lives end up.”