In high school, Kenneth Fletcher was told he would be nothing more than a garbage man based on career test results. But he will graduate from Odessa College with a bachelor of applied arts and sciences degree in entrepreneurship.
Next the 39-year-old Fort Worth native will go for his bachelor’s in criminal justice leadership and hopefully in 2024, his bachelor’s degree in occupational health and safety.
Odessa College’s School of Business and Industry will graduate at 6 p.m. Friday; the College of Liberal Arts and Education will commence at 10 a.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m. Saturday, Health Careers, Adult Basic Education and Continuing Education will graduate. All ceremonies are in the OC Sports Center and will be livestreamed.
Fletcher worked for the City of Odessa for 11 years starting in Code Enforcement. He was then a police officer with the Odessa Police Department and then went to the Fire Marshal’s Office.
A graduate of Lee (now Legacy) High School in Midland, he got his firefighter and EMT certification in 2007-08 from Midland College. He went into the fire service in Midland for a little while. When he left, he did some odd jobs and then returned to OC because he decided he needed his degrees.
He said the City of Odessa is always wanting employees to get more education.
“They actually came up with their own classes. They had their own management certificate and they were looking at it to where if you wanted to promote, you needed this management certificate. They were actually paying for your classes. I came back and I started doing those classes to get the management certificate with the business program. Then I decided, you know what, I’m doing really good in these classes. I should just stay so I came through and I finished up my fire degree in 2019 and I graduated with my associate in fire administration; 2020 I got my general studies, associate degree; 2021 I got my associate in criminal justice leadership; ‘22 will be my first bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship; ‘23 I’ll get my bachelor’s degree in criminal justice leadership. And hopefully in ‘24, I’ll have my bachelor’s degree in occupational health and safety management. I’m getting three three of the four bachelor’s degrees that Odessa College offers …,” Fletcher said.
Once in school, Fletcher couldn’t stop, partly because it’s hard to go back once you’ve stepped back. He has taken all his classes online.
“The staff here at Odessa College, they’re amazing. They’re willing to work with you no matter what it is. If you have questions, if you have concerns. Even in my classes here recently, I’ve been sick so I haven’t been up to my normal par. My professors have noticed and they’ve called and checked on me to make sure that I’m doing okay because they noticed a decline in my work. It’s almost like having a family and you’re not just a number here …,” Fletcher said.
He is now trying to get on at the Odessa or Midland College police department. His goal is to start work in January.
The fact that he’s graduating is exciting.
“When I was in high school, they diagnosed me with dyslexia and a learning disability where my short-term memory switching to my long-term memory doesn’t function quite properly. So things that I read, a lot of times don’t switch over to long-term memory. I have trouble with that. A lot of my books I buy online because they read them to me. If someone reads it to me, I can remember it. I can remember conversations from years ago, but I can’t remember what I read 20 minutes ago. It’s been a challenge,” Fletcher said.
When he was in high school, they had to take tests to tell them what their profession was going to be.
“I wasn’t supposed to be any more than a garbage man. That’s what the test said,” Fletcher recalled.
“I graduated high school. My math level was post high school. I was really good at math because math was numbers and it was and it was black and white. You either had it right or not. But my reading level was pre-junior high when I graduated high school. So to come back and do well in college, I never thought I would go to college because I didn’t think after being told for so long that you weren’t good enough to do it, I didn’t think I was going to. As long as I continue on with this, I should graduate with a 4.0 with my bachelor’s degree,” he added.
Fletcher said he has learned to deal with his dyslexia on his own.
“I use a lot of spell checks,” he said.
His sister, LaTisha Rehn, also has a master’s degree in English and teaches at Legacy High School in Midland, so he can use her to review his work, as well.
Google also is a useful too because if you can’t spell a word, Google can tell you how.
Additionally, he’ll read his work out loud, which helps him correct it.
“My goal in life is to help people and teach people,” Fletcher said.
Being able to graduate after being told he wouldn’t be anything more than a garbage man is something he can tell youngsters who might get discouraged.
“You just have to learn how to do it. We’re in a society now where it’s okay not to be good at something and we don’t push to make people better and make them understand that we all have problems. Everyone has problems these days. It’s not a nice world anymore. We all still have to get up every day and we have to carry on, even if you have problems and you have to learn to work with those, no matter what it is. And yes, there’s a lot of problems out there and there’s a lot of ways to deal with them. But we all have to get help and we all have to figure out how to move forward with life,” Fletcher said.
He is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, OC Honors College and National Society of Leadership and Success. Combining that, he hopes that will enable him to pick up some scholarships and grants at the university level.
He’s in somewhat of a competition with his sister to keep racking up the degrees.
“My ultimate plan is to finish my career and then come back and actually teach with all my degrees. I want to adjunct teach, though, because I want to do it from a beach,” he joked.
Asked what advice he would give people in his same situation, Fletcher said don’t let anybody tell you what you’re going to be or what you’re going to do in life.
“A lot of times in life, people will bring you down because they want to bring you down to their level. They’re not living their best life and they don’t want to see other people succeed. But you have to follow your dreams, no matter what it is and work hard and as long as you’re working hard you can pretty much get to any dream that you have. It might take you a little longer. It’s been 20 years this year since I graduated high school and I’m getting my first degree,” Fletcher said.
