Velocity - Magazine - Page 6
AGAINST THE ODDS
by Jennifer Snyder
Tammy Zimmer knows what it means to have the deck stacked against you. Her
mother had her and her twin sister at 16 and her father didn’t finish high school.
Poverty wasn’t a circumstance in her childhood; it was the landscape.
“To grow up in that kind of environment is already
only a certain kind of person goes to prison, and
a black mark,” Zimmer said. “I came to understand,
I’m like no. An accident, an addiction – all kinds of
from a very young age, that not everybody gets the
different things could land you there.”
same fair shake. There are just so many different
barriers in front of people as it pertains to education.”
Zimmer became a straight-A student anyway.
She kept going and earned a Master of Fine Arts in
Poetry from Miami University in Ohio. In 2017, she
joined Southeast Community College as an English
Marching band. Theater. Student council. National
instructor on the Beatrice Campus, commuting
Honor Society. She graduated, enrolled in college,
between Lincoln and Beatrice every day.
and ran straight into
The Nebraska
what no one had told
her: college is not
high school.
“It was always
at the forefront
of my mind that
there are barriers
which needed to be
broken down,” she
State Penitentiary
“
sat on her route.
She would drive
past it and
Some of these students have
transformed me as much, perhaps
more, than I have transformed
anything for them.”
”
really know what
college was like or
because I didn’t have the social capital others had. I
showed up and didn’t even know about buying your
own books and I didn’t have a laptop because my
parents hadn’t gone to college and didn’t know how
to prepare me for it.”
In her early 20s, Zimmer was involved in a serious
car accident that led to felony charges, later pleaded
down to misdemeanors. She ended up serving time
in jail.
didn’t teach on
the other side of
the wall.
Nine years
explained. “I didn’t
what it entailed
wonder why SCC
later, she is the
Administrative
Director of
UPWARD. When she talks about the work, she steers
away from recidivism statistics and toward the
personal stories, the kind that carry the same shape
as hers.
“We always talk about how transformative
education is for the student,” she says. “What’s often
underdeveloped is how teaching in this environment
transforms those of us who serve it. Some of these
students have transformed me as much, perhaps
more, than I have transformed anything for them.”
“I’ve been in shackles. I’ve been arraigned. I’ve
been in stripes,” Zimmer said. “It was a very, very
small taste but it was hard. I think people believe
Zimmer, (right) presents diplomas during UPWARD’s graduation ceremony.
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SCC Velocity
