![Anna Mattox]( "Anna Mattox")
WELLESLEY HILLS, Mass. (June 2020) — MassBay 2020 graduate, Anna Mattox of Providence, RI, has been accepted to the University of Connecticut Hartford to pursue her bachelor’s degree in social work. Anna’s story about her passion for helping people began when she was a high school student in Central Virginia and became involved with Habitat for Humanity and Feed America. She traveled around the country, helping build homes and volunteering at food banks for those in need.
After moving north from Virginia, she settled in Providence and began taking classes at MassBay, where she has turned her desire to help others into the focus of her career path. Anna has taken this passion to a new level by ensuring families throughout Rhode Island are safe and have basic needs, making a significant impact on the families she assists.
“I currently intern at the non-profit women’s shelter, Sojourner House in Rhode Island, supporting survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual violence. This is where I learned I wanted to do social work. I wanted to be where I could gain the most experience to make sure I wanted to do this for my career. The work I do at Sojourner House is tough, but I feel I am helping make a difference in people’s lives and that keeps me motivated. I’ve done such personally rewarding work, like moving a mother and her children into their own apartment after they experienced such incredibly horrible situations that they had to leave their home with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I’m helping them start over and rebuild their lives, introducing them to social services to help break the cycle and get them to a better place. It is rewarding work,” said Anna.
A first-generation college student, Anna has taken her academic career very seriously. “I needed to invest my time and energy into one thing, my studies,” she added. While at MassBay, she has taken honors classes and extra classes she found interesting to challenge herself. Anna is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society for two-year colleges and was part of the Psychology club.
“UConn was the first college I was accepted to and I felt a connection to their program immediately. The social work program I will be entering is a small cohort on the big campus, so I will still have that small classroom feel. I’m really excited to move and get started,” said Anna.
Anna earned her Associate of Arts degree in psychology and sociology with a 4.0 GPA and is excited to continue her education in a field that she loves while advocating for others.
To learn more about at MassBay visit www.massbay.edu
MassBay Community College is ranked by the Brookings Institution as one of the top schools for value added and earned salaries in the workforce. Ranked #1 for two-year colleges in Massachusetts, #2 in New England, and #16 nationally. The College’s facilities in Wellesley Hills, Framingham, and Ashland house day, evening and weekend classes that meet the needs of degree-seeking students and career minded lifelong learners. Online options provide convenience and allow faculty to facilitate the learning process. Since its founding in 1961, MassBay has been accredited by several governing bodies and strives to meet the needs of the diverse local communities it serves.