College Excel is the brainchild of co-founders Sue Harless, a teacher who spent years inspiring discouraged learners and Jeannie Crowell, who spent 25 years of her life as a counselor.
While their goals are aligned, the paths they took to get here couldn't be more different.
Sue Harless wants to take the lessons she learned, and the years she's spent observing teenagers, and put them into action:
"My work with young adults over the past 25 years has allowed me privileged insight into their world. It’s a remarkable world filled with creativity, joy, uncertainty, fear, pride, desire, pain and passion. And their voices are amazing - as they call out to be heard and understood as they find their way.
I’ve also been in the unique position of seeing and hearing and working with them on the things that keep them stuck…issues such as relationships, drugs or alcohol, anxiety, depression, fear, anger, procrastination, things they wish they had done and things they wish they hadn’t.
Seeing how these issues were smothering out that great passion, pride and creativity, and robbing them of those amazing voices, I knew I had to take note, and College Excel had to take action."
Jeannie Crowell wants to use the wisdom she gained first hand to help young adults move forward with their lives free of shame:
"I know what obstacles look like and the hard work it takes to let go of your past. I was an experiential learner with undiagnosed ADD which made my journey rich with lessons, but hard on my soul.
At 21 years old, I'd hit rock bottom 4 or 5 times. I dropped out of high school and then college, unable to follow through with school. I tried to self-medicate the feelings I was hiding – thinking I was just lazy, stupid or maybe even crazy. I was scared about my future, but hid the fear and anxiety I was experiencing behind the drugs that had become my best friends.
I lost my self-confidence, burned my bridges and was sick of the life I was leading, but didn’t know what to do about it. I thought about giving up completely, but there was always something inside of me that held out hope. I had dreams about who I could be, but I was just so lost and had stopped letting people help me.
Eventually, I ended up finding a few people I could trust. I told them my story, my true story, and they listened without judgment. The compassion and understanding they showed me saved my life. They saw through my disguises to the real me. And they believed in the me that I had lost. This event changed my life forever. I was so thankful that someone stopped long enough to really see me and helped me understand that the things that I felt so ashamed of doing were the only coping mechanisms I had at the time to survive my life.
It was at that point that I finally knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to help others like myself avoid the tragedy my life had become by reaching out and offering them a place to find themselves again."
College Excel was the natural next step for both of them. Their combined dream took root in the lush mountains of Bend, Oregon and, since its launch in 2002, has grown into a unique combination of passion and dedication that challenges students to transform their lives.
In many ways, the existence of College Excel is proof that its methods work. Both co-founders put themselves on specific paths that aligned with their talents and gifts, believed in themselves and their ability to change the lives of others, and achieved their goals. It's the same mission they now instill in their students.
