As a young man just out of high school, reeling from the culture shock of moving from Texas to Vermont, Seamus Toler was adrift. Feeling pressure to follow the family tradition into healthcare, he worked as an EKG tech for Dartmouth Health. “Honestly, I was kind of lost. I didn’t really know where I wanted to go. It was a time in my life when I was really starting to have that self-discovery moment. I was very unhappy.”
So Seamus explored his options for going back to school—and just down the road was CCV-Upper Valley. Right away, he knew it was the place for him. “CCV was the process of me becoming a better and healthier and more happy person. I think it was that new dynamic and relationship with education that helped me become a better person,” Seamus said.
Seamus used the 802 Opportunity program to attend CCV tuition-free. The state-sponsored program is administered by VSAC and provides free CCV tuition to Vermonters with a household income of $100,000 or less. “The 802 Opportunity grant allowed me to have the relief and success of not being financially burdened from college,” Seamus said. “The fact that I’m able to come into a program and not worry about the financial aspect of it—it’s the best. It’s literally the best.”
At CCV, Seamus had the freedom to explore his many interests. “It was so gratifying to be able to not just study what I signed up for, in the sense of you are able to freely float around within knowledge, and you’re able to freely explore all sorts of different topics.” He credits his instructors for encouraging his innate curiosity. He was particularly close with one instructor, Fred Bennett, who teaches psychology courses and helped Seamus discover a passion for the humanities. “He helped to push me in that direction, and told me that it’s okay to push myself in a direction that I feel happy about…he just absolutely changed my life.”
After completing his CCV degree in 2022, Seamus transferred to Vermont State University to pursue a bachelor’s degree in graphic design—a discipline he fell in love with at CCV. “I didn’t feel fulfilled with just getting an associate degree,” he said. “I felt that there was a lot more I needed to learn about and a lot more I wanted to pursue, especially as an artist and as someone who is hungry for knowledge and education. And when I learned about the internal transfer, and being able to transfer [all my] credits and no extra fees or whatever, it really kind of was like the no-brainer next step for me.”
The transfer process was easy, and VTSU was the right fit culturally. “I think it was the fact that it’s one of the most accepting colleges that we have in Vermont. I knew that I would need a place that I would be able to feel like I can be myself authentically, without any sort of backlash or any sort of pressure to change who I am. Because I love who I am, and I know that part of how I interact with education is just being myself.”
But did CCV prepare Seamus academically for VTSU? “I think beyond a shadow of doubt,” he says. “I went into this program thinking it would be the hardest thing in the world, but in reality it was probably one of the more fun things in the world just because my time at CCV gave me such a level of regimen, and process, and fluidity in what I do that I’m really able to feel confident in how I approach my education from now on.”
Seamus says his Vermont State Colleges education is preparing him for the future—and it’s also giving him a richer experience of life in the moment. “It’s helping me to build a resume and a portfolio that I’m really proud of, and that I can really stand by. It’s giving me the opportunity to continue to learn and continue to be hungry for knowledge, to be able to be very active and very human throughout my life. It’s giving me more lessons than I thought I would ever learn. We go to college to learn but I don’t think it’s just for the information we’re getting a degree in, but rather the experiences and the life lessons we learn along the way.”
