Recent CMC graduate earns certificate, degree with honors
By Mike McKibbin
RIFLE – The road was anything but smooth and straight for a divorced Rifle mother of three, but Angela Herrington stayed on course through the bumps and curves of her 18-month-long journey.
She recently reached two key academic milestones at Colorado Mountain College in Spring Valley, earning her Associate of Arts degree and certificate of occupational proficiency from the college’s Colorado Law Enforcement Training Academy, or CLETA.
“It was a little stressful, especially at the end there, when I had to be at the hospital with my daughter and study to pass my (Peace Officer Standards and Training) test” to get a certificate in law enforcement, she said. Herrington’s associate degree, with honors, came with an emphasis in criminal justice.
When Herrington received her honors on April 30, her 16-year-old son, Devin Goodbar, who lives with his grandparents in Pueblo, surprised his mother by taking the bus to watch her graduate.
“I had no idea he was coming,” Herrington said. “My dad picked him up and it really made me happy to have him there.”
Herrington’s journey started with Women in Transition’s Gateway program, a partnership between Colorado Mountain College and the Garfield County Department of Human Services. She had just lost her job because her then-two-year-old daughter, Leila, was having multiple medical problems.
Herrington enrolled in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program through the human services department and began to work on completing the associate degree she had started and stopped many years earlier.
Herrington took part in the Link-to-Success program, a series of classes to help parents handle school, work or life. She also took an online class and completed the coursework for her degree in December.
During her journey, Herrington struggled to find enough money for gasoline to drive daily from Rifle to Spring Valley, arranged childcare for her children when they were ill and dealt with mechanical problems with her pickup truck. On top of everything, Herrington stopped smoking.
“I have asthma, and I knew I’d have to quit if I was going to make it through (CLETA),” she said. “So I quit.”
Now 34, Herrington cares for her 20-month-old son, Zayne, and now-four-year-old Leila, volunteers at the Rifle Animal Shelter and is looking for work as a law enforcement officer.
“It was exhausting, but I got through it,” Herrington said of her journey to her dual honors. “I’m proud and my family is really proud.”
And Herrington said she never thought of giving up.
“I’ve always been interested in the law and being a detective,” she explained. “This is what I want to do in order to support my kids and be on my own. I can’t support them working at Wal-Mart. So I was pretty determined to get through it.”
Awesome article, Angela has had a lot of road blocks along the way, but has managed to work around them. We are all very proud of her and can’t wait for her to work as a police officer. She will be an awesome officer!!!