Cora Faye McGuire

BY Walker Thompson
June 6, 2006

Cora Faye McGuire came to us last fall as a GED student through Cindy Winters' program here at the Career & Technical Center.

On June 6, 2002 Cora was seriously injured in an automobile accident in North Carolina when an oncoming car crossed the centerline and hit the car Cora was driving head on. Cora had to be cut out of the wreckage and airlifted to the hospital where she spent 4 days in a coma and the next 18 months recovering.

During that time recovering from the effects of the accident became her priority and school fell by the wayside. One of the effects of the accident was a significant loss of memory and there was some question as to whether finishing school would ever be possible.

In the spring of 2005 Cora moved back to West Virginia and during the summer she was encouraged to contact the Putnam County ABE GED program for assistance with her missed schooling.

In August she was tested by the program and encouraged to come and work on her GED. She joined the program and as part of the cooperative efforts with the Literacy Volunteers of Putnam County she was assigned a tutor to work with her on math and a second tutor to work with her on phonics and spelling.

Cora worked very hard to make up for the two years she had been out of school and to overcome the memory loss.

In December she took the GED test and passed it with flying colors.

This encouraged her to go on to college and meant studying for the ACT Test. Over the next three months she completed the ACT Developmental Mathematics preparatory book and completed a review of four years of high school science. She took the ACT Test in April and did very well.

She has now enrolled in West Virginia State University and started classes this summer to be a teacher.

I have no doubt that Cora will succeed in whatever she goes after. I have also told Cora that when she finishes college and has some time I expect to come into our program as a tutor. She has the ability to be a good one and when we discover a good tutor we want to keep them. Tonight we want to recognize Cora as our student of the year for what she has accomplished this year and to wish her well as she starts on the next phase of her life's journey.