An alarm clock blares just a little after the sun rises. With a lot of tasks to pack into each day, Dameon Cunningham’s feet touch the floor at 7 a.m. He often helps his wife get their children ready for school before he drives nearly 30 miles from Batesville to attend his own classes at the University of Mississippi.
Like a small fraction of college students, Cunningham is a non-traditional transfer student studying to be a social worker.
School is not Cunningham’s only responsibility. It is not even his most pressing responsibility. His wife, children and church have needs as well, but school is the most stressful.
He is married with three sons. His wife Brittany is the owner and stylist at Jus B Hair Salon and Spa. His son Omarion is 14 years old in the 9th grade, Kaleb is 9 years old in the third grade and Destin is 5 years old in kindergarten.
(Photo: Lyndy Berryhill)
Cunningham is also the senior pastor at Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Courtland, where he oversees church affairs such as preaching and teaching God’s word, visiting the sick, hospitalized and imprisoned in his community.
“It was a calling,” Cunningham said of his desire to preach. “I felt like my purpose in life was to serve in the ministry.”
The reason Cunningham wants to become a social worker because he was already doing a lot of community work. He said he felt it was taking away time from his family.
Cunningham thought that if he could support his family while still helping people, then he could be there more for his wife and children.
“What I had to do was make my passion my profession … I wanted to help people on more than one level,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham has risen from a series of hard knocks. When he was 2, his mother died of cancer. When he was 12, his father died in an industrial work accident.
Cunningham said growing up in a variety of homes and being separated from his siblings was not easy for him.
After his parents’ deaths, Cunningham and his siblings were all separated; each sibling went to live with different family members over three different states until they were grown.
Cunningham grew up in Batesville, Courtland and “a little in Memphis.”
He made it all the way to the 12th grade at South Panola High School before his aunt took him out of school due to financial issues.
“Education to me is an unfinished chapter in my life,” Cunningham said.
Writing that chapter has not been easy. Cunningham said he studied hard to earn his GED. Twelve years later, he earned an associate’s degree from Northwest Community College.
He graduated from Northwest with highest honors and a 4.0 grade point average. He was also named a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and was selected to be a part of the 2015 All-Mississippi Academic Team.
Despite obstacles, Cunningham excelled. However, his first semester at Ole Miss was more of challenge. Cunningham dropped his classes and had to reevaluate his priorities. He came back in the fall after changing jobs.
He currently works part-time at Springboard To Opportunities’ office in Batesville as a community specialist who helps families locate affordable housing.
“It’s been a challenge trying to balance home, work, school, church and family,” Cunningham said. “At this point, I don’t have a system to help me keep everything balanced. I just try to take one day at a time, and handle things by priority.”
It is not uncommon for community college transfers to take longer than the prescribed four years to graduate. In Mississippi, one of the top five states for low-income transfer students, the completion rate for students seeking a bachelor degree within six years is 46 percent.
This is in part because many low-income students whose parents never attended college lack the financial stability to be a full-time student. In 2014, 61 percent of more than 7.3 million community college students were enrolled part time, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.
Students end up working full-time jobs while attending class to pay their way.
At 34 years old, he is paying his tuition with the fruits of his academic labor on a Lucky Day scholarship.
Nationally, only 36 percent of low-income transfer students complete their bachelor’s degree, contrasted with 44 percent of middle and upper income transfer students, according to the Community College Research Center.
Forty-four percent of students who attend a two-year college after high school have a family incomes of less than $25,000 annually, whereas only 15 percent of high-income students enroll, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
Cunningham was one of Susan Tyler’s first students she taught in her Lucky Day transfer orientation class.
Tyler also works in the university’s financial aid office. Afterwards she teaches studying strategies, professional development and learning how to be a university student.
It is a big transition, community college students go from a campus of a few thousand to a campus of more than 20,000.
In Tyler’s class, she focuses on feeling at home at Ole Miss.
“In my opinion, a general sense of belonging helps a student feel like they are not going through the big transition alone and helps with overall engagement with academics and the university,” Tyler said.
Tyler said a common fear from her students is that they feel unprepared by choosing more affordable education options.
A comprehensive 2006 study revealed that 58 percent of recent high school graduates who entered community colleges took at least one developmental course.
One of the common reasons students choose to attend a community college first is because they were unprepared by their high school, so some students spend their first year enrolled in a developmental classes, which are designed to elevate students to an acceptable college aptitude.
“Most of my transfer students have been somewhat intimidated by professors and seem to have to ‘grow into’ their confidence in their academic ability.”
Cunningham will complete his 4-year degree in social work in a handful of semesters.
His wife, Brittany, said he is an inspiration to many.
“I feel honored to be the wife of this man,” she said. “When he shares his story it makes you think ‘my situation could be worst, I could have been him’ and it makes you thankful for whatever your situation is.”
In Cunningham’s 10-year plan, he imagines himself as the founder and director of his own recreational center in his home town. He still wants to be the senior pastor of Liberty Hill, even possibly have a doctorate in theology.
“Even though he’s being shared between home, work, church, school and other activities, he balances everything well and without missing a beat,” Brittany said. “I’m awaiting the day he becomes Dr. Dameon L. Cunningham.”
Cunningham said having so much disappointment in his life has made him grow into a stronger, more accepting person.
“It adds to the story of my chapter,” he said.
It has been a long chapter to write, but Cunningham said he wants people to think: “If he did it, then I can do it too.”
“So many odds were stacked against me,” Cunningham said. “I think that (my story) will be very inspirational.”
