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News: Roane State Middle College graduate’s career path inspired by her own ‘life-changing experience’

Caitlin Paolucci

Nov. 21, 2018

By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer

Stricken with a rare disease that left her unable to walk, talk or even hold a pencil when she was 11, Roane State Middle College graduate Caitlin Paolucci bounced back and now wants to pay it back.

Paolucci, who graduated from both Rockwood High and Roane State in May 2017, wants to become a special education teacher.

Doing so would be a repayment, she said, for the educator who helped her three-year recovery from what she called “a life-changing experience.”

Paolucci was stricken with NMDA Receptor Antibody Encephalitis, a “one-in-a-million” ailment where antibodies in her blood attacked her brain. She was hospitalized for two months, spent 18 months in physical, occupational and speech therapy and three years in special education classes. She credits special education teacher Cindy Bacso for her invaluable help on the road to recovery.

She said her current fast track in East Tennessee State University to become a special education teacher was launched during her two years in Roane State’s Middle College program.

Caitlin, her younger brother and their parents, Les and Dana Paolucci, moved to Tennessee when she was 16. She said Alan Reed, then principal of Rockwood High, looked at her transcript and said, “You look like you could be a Middle College student.”

Middle College students spend mornings taking classes at Roane State and return to their respective high schools in the afternoon to complete graduation requirements. Middle College, Paolucci said, “was the best decision I’ve ever made. I loved it. I learned so much from Roane State and its awesome professors.”

She particularly cited chemistry professor Steve Ward and Mike Hill, her English instructor, as standout educators.

When her grandmother died during her second semester at Roane State, “I was struggling in my courses, and all the professors helped me,” she said.

Paolucci, now 19, said attaining her associate’s degree in the college’s Middle College program “properly prepared me for why I’m doing so well in college now.”

She’s the first student at ETSU to participate in the College of Education’s special education accelerated “bachelor’s to master’s program” where she’s taking graduate level courses while finishing her bachelor’s degree. “I’m the guinea pig,” she said, adding that the opportunity left her “shocked and excited.”

She’ll graduate from ETSU with a bachelor’s degree in May 2019, and is on track to obtain her master’s degree the following May.

Paolucci said she plans to teach special education in a high school for a couple of years and eventually teach in college. Long-term, she said, she’d like to obtain a doctorate and teach special education classes to educators.

Paolucci has this advice for high school students considering Roane State’s Middle College program: “I say go for it. Work your hardest and go for it.”

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