2024 - Percy Schulz: I feel connected to the community here

I started at Elgin Community College (ECC) right after I graduated high school in the fall of 2021. Over the last three years, I’ve been very involved with the campus. My biggest commitment to ECC was working in the Writers Center. 

I was awarded the Leaders in Creative Writing Scholarship, which meant that I got to work in the Writers Center office, help lead and organize events, and engage with the editing process of Spire, ECC’s literary arts magazine. It was a two-year term, and although that sounds like a long time, it flew by quickly. 

I am so grateful to have met so many amazing people, from fellow writers at ECC to published authors who have visited ECC for readings and my team of students and staff in the Writers Center. Rachael Stewart, professor of English, was the head of the Writers Center during the time of my scholarship. She was one of the first professors I had at ECC, and we clicked the second we met each other. Rachael always made me feel like I was important; she told me that my writing was a gift that “should be cultivated and tended to.” Because of her, I grew into the writer and the person I am now.

Another major program I was involved in during my time at ECC was the summer of 2024 Study Abroad to Urbania, Italy. I had never left the country before, but because of this program, I spent the entire month of June in Italy. On top of seeing iconic architecture and art, I got to dive into Italian culture. We took a beginner Italian course and practiced the language daily through conversations with the locals. I got to try a lot of different Italian food and learned how so many of humanity's greatest achievements started in the places we visited, from the art in Florence, to the rich history of Rome. However, I think the most important thing I learned in Italy was how vast and beautiful the world was. A lot of my time was spent exploring the beautiful cities, wandering the winding paths, and getting closer to my professors and other students on the trip. I saw statues carved by legends, cities thousands of years old, and traditions rooted in connection, the complicated and beautiful act of being human. When they said that we were going to be different people when we came back home, I didn’t believe them. Looking back, though, I can definitely say it is true.

Initially, out of high school, I wanted to go to the University of Iowa and eventually get my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, specifically poetry. I wanted to get out, meet new people, and visit new places – the usual dreams someone has when they are just about to graduate high school. When the pandemic hit, the future was looking bleak, but I knew that I still needed to do something. I had heard great things about ECC, and the distance and the costs of going there were a lot more appealing than trying to navigate to Iowa amidst a global pandemic. 

In the beginning, I was bummed. I had really high expectations for what college should be like, and I didn’t know what to expect when I entered a community college. But then, I started to meet people! I fostered relationships with both fellow students and professors, something that I didn’t think I was able to do. I feel connected to the community here; you don’t get that at big schools, at least not like ECC. 

After graduation, I’m going to take a semester off to get my bearings as I make this major transition. I plan on transferring to a university in the fall of 2025, as to which one I am not so sure. I still want to pursue English, and eventually teach Creative Writing. As for the immediate future, I’ll be working at my local coffee shop in Elgin, and still writing whenever I can.

My advice for future students would be to get involved! ECC is unique in the sense that there are many different programs, events, clubs, and organizations available to students. In the beginning, I only stayed on campus for my classes and maybe a professor's office hours here and there. One day, I decided to just sit in Jobe Lounge (which is intimidating for a new student, I know). I was clicking away on a Google Doc before a person approached me and said, “You look really cool. Can we be friends?” Before long, that person became a great friend of mine and was my incentive to start attending club meetings and taking ECC not just as a place to get college credit but as its own living, breathing, and ever-changing institution.

I'd like to give special thanks to the Writers Center, the ECC Center for Global Engagement, and everyone who helped me get this far. If I could list all of your names, I would. Thank you.

Percy Schulz, ‘24

East Dundee, Illinois

Associate in Arts

You can read more graduate essays by visiting elgin.edu/graduates.