Wichita State student defies odds, graduates college

Joshua Woods (Photo courtesy of Wichita State)

In 2010, Joshua Woods handed over the last $30 he had to apply to Wichita State in Kansas. He had no idea whether he belonged in college or what he wanted to study — all he knew was that he needed to turn his life around, he told the school.

Last month, after years of hard work, he proved he could do just that: He walked across the stage in cap and gown to receive his journalism degree.

He told the school that envy was a motivator: “I looked at how empty my life was. These students looked like they had it all together, even if they didn’t. They knew what they wanted out of life.”

Woods had been living with his sister in Wichita with no money to his name, and no prospects. He was 27,  and couldn’t find a job. But it was in searching for one — a hunt that often took him past the school and its students — that his life was changed. He decided to take his savings, walk into the school, and apply.

He never expected to get in.

Woods spent six years attending Wichita State.

“In the beginning, I don’t think I was prepared to receive the learning and encounter the challenges involved with learning all the things that I had to,” Woods told the school. “I felt like an outcast. … It was a struggle to sit in the back of the classroom as a returning adult at 27 years old. I didn’t think I could do it.”

To help finance his education, he worked at various jobs to help pay his tuition.

“There were a lot of tears in getting to this point — knowing I have a future,” Woods told Wichita State. “I kept saying to myself, ‘I’ve got to try.’ I can’t be one of those parents who tells their kids, ‘I tried but I gave up. It was too difficult.’”