First-Generation Student a Successful Social Worker

To this day, Kathy Diehl does not remember applying for a scholarship to attend Delta College.

Having married shortly after graduating from Bay City Central High School in 1973, college was not really in her plans. But when she learned she had won a scholarship to Delta, she figured she would give it a try.

“It was a great opportunity. Being newly married we did not have a lot of money,” she said. “Once at Delta, my eyes were opened to a world I did not know existed. For really the first time, I was told that I could achieve anything. For that I am forever grateful.”

Realizing her Potential at Delta

Attending Delta turned out to be the first step on a highly successful career path for Diehl. After graduating in December of 1974, she went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology at the University of Michigan.

Since then, she has spent her career helping others as a clinical social worker. She currently lives and works in Ann Arbor, where she is a manager in the UM Department of Social Work and also operates a small private practice.

While she credits the professor in her first psychology class at Delta for sparking her interest in the field, it was a geology professor who really inspired her when she visited him during office hours. After discussing a question she had, she light-heartedly mentioned maybe she would become a geologist. He told her in all honesty he believed she could do it, that she could do anything.

“That was really a watershed moment for me,” Diehl said. “I had never experienced someone saying that to me before.”

An Amazing Journey

Diehl has come a long way from growing up on a farm in Hampton Township as the youngest of four children of parents who left school after 8th grade.

Taking a wide variety of classes at Delta, including art history and literature – even figure skating – and being exposed to new experiences like the theater, fueled a lifelong passion for learning.

“I was not a great high school student, and part of that was my parents simply not knowing how to help me,” she said. “But at Delta, everyone was invested in the students and engaged with the students and would do anything they could to help a student succeed. I don’t think I would have had the same success if I started at a big university. I needed the guidance and help from professors who knew me. I’m a big supporter of community colleges, and Delta led me to a life I could not have even imagined before.”  

 

Interested in supporting scholarships at Delta College? Contact Sheryl Kiscadden at 989-686-9206 or sherylkiscadden@delta.edu.