EOU Home  |  About EOU | Visitors Center   

DDE grad publishes second book sharing helpful hints and tips for some of life's predicaments

Story and photos by Laura Hancock | University Advancement
Phone: 541-962-3585 | E-mail: lhancock@eou.edu

Catherine Mcnerney

Tuesday, July 25, 2006
LA GRANDE – When Catherine Mcnerney became a mother at age 16, she never imagined she would be a published writer one day. Her world as she knew it, had changed forever. Providing for her young daughter, Misty, became priority number one, not chasing after dreams.

Today, Mcnerney is a different woman. She is the confident author of two books, “Someone Help Me, I’m a Teen Parent,” and “The Distance Education Survival Guide,” and Mcnerney has plenty to say about her past, and her future.

Mcnerney’s books offer helpful hints and tips that she hopes will reach people who have experienced similar situations in life that she has – as a struggling young mother and as a non-traditional student in pursuit of a college degree.

In middle school and on into her first years in high school, Mcnerney was a 4.0 student, showing great promise both academically and athletically as a gymnast. She was so skilled at the sport that her mother planned to send her to the gymnastics academy in Eugene where she was to begin training for the 1988 Olympics.

Then, the unthinkable happened. She fell during a routine, ripping the cartilage in her knee and shattering her ankle. The hardest part, Mcnerney says, wasn’t the pain in her leg. It was the feeling that she had disappointed her mother. That she had somehow let her down.

With the dream of competing in the Olympics gone, Mcnerney began to sink into a depression.

“It changed my life,” she says. “I started partying, and then I got pregnant. I always told myself that I wouldn’t have kids until I turned 30. Then I had my daughter and realized that I loved her so much, it didn’t matter.”

Mcnerney hopes that her books will aid others
in overcoming life's hurdles.

Several years later, Mcnerney, then a single mother of two, found herself living in La Grande with her daughter and son, Nathan, trying to juggle work with going back to school. She enrolled in the distance education program at Eastern Oregon University and completed her associate’s degree in office administration.

“I had just moved here and had a job that prevented me from being on-campus for most of my classes,” Mcnerney says. “I had small children, so it was also easier for me to stay home.”

Then in 2001, Mcnerney moved more than 2,000 miles away to Tennessee, which is where she says she was inspired to write her first book.

“I saw how different it was from here (La Grande) in the west,” she says. “I wrote a teen parenting book because I saw just how little help teenagers get over there.”

Mcnerney drew insight for her book from her own experiences as a teen mother, and began to research the sociological aspects of teen parenthood and how teens find themselves in the predicament of parenthood.

“A lot of teenagers glamorize having a baby,” she says.

In her research she found a need for information that didn’t chastise or talk down to girls for being in that situation. Facing an innumerable amount teen parenting books already on the market, Mcnerney decided to write a simple, step-by-step guide detailing how to live within one’s means while promoting self-empowerment.

While living in Tennessee, Mcnerney worked on her own self-empowerment by continuing her education through EOU online. The school near where she lived, Tennessee Technological University, allowed her the use of a classroom for exams, and she delved into her studies again, focusing on sociology, psychology and anthropology. 

During this time, she found the perception of distance education on the east coast to be very different from that on the west, and she had an idea for a second book – a survival guide for non-traditional students searching out their options for college.

“People over 30, like myself, may be intimidated by everything out there,” she says. “I looked for other books on the market that were similar to my idea and couldn’t find any, so I said, ‘I’ll write one.’”

Mcnerney began by e-mailing and writing letters to colleges and universities across the country to find out what distance education courses were offered. She found that while many schools did have programs in place, they offered no online help, counselors, or even the same degrees that were available to on-campus students. Tuition was also significantly higher for distance education students.

Mcnerney says that the distance education program at EOU is strikingly different than those of other schools. There is no out-of-state tuition charge at EOU, a major benefit for students enrolling either on-campus or at a distance. 

“If EOU didn’t have the Division of Distance Education, it would have taken me much longer to complete my degree,” says Mcnerney, who highlights EOU in both of her books. “The counselors . . . everyone here is wonderful.”

Mcnerney, who has never taken any journalism or writing classes beyond general education requirements, just published her second book in June, “The Distance Education Survival Guide.”

“I was so excited, I looked it up on the Internet to see which bookstores were carrying it, and I saw it at Barnes and Noble!” she says.

“Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help, but if you think you can do it on your own, give it a try and you might find out you’re better than you thought you were.”
               — Catherine Mcnerney

She plans to spend as much time as she can to promote her books at bookstores in La Grande, Baker City and Pendleton this summer. Mcnerney's work was published by Publish America, a company based in Baltimore.

 

Both of her books are slim, pocket-style paperbacks that are easy to handle and carry.

“I didn’t want them to be thick books,” she says. “I’m intimidated by thick books!”

Regardless, “The Distance Education Survival Guide” covers everything from managing finances, different delivery formats of online classes, to simple steps for preparing quick and healthy meals. 

In 2005, Mcnerney received her bachelor’s of science degree from EOU. She admits that she did have a few discouraging experiences while a student, and surprisingly enough, one such experience was taking a writing proficiency exam.

But in the same way that Mcnerney is open about her achievements, she is just as candid about expressing her weaknesses.

“I have dyslexia, and I had to take a math test three times before passing it,” she says.

Pat Arnson, disabilities services coordinator at EOU, worked with Mcnerney and encouraged her not to give up, and Mcnerney came away with a different attitude.

“There is nothing wrong with taking extra time to learn. I’m a whiz at reading and writing, but it’s the numbers that are hard,” she says.

“Catie was an outstanding, dedicated student at EOU with a burning desire to learn and earn a degree. While attending school, she maintained an excellent grade point average, took care of a family and worked full time,” Arnson says.

“Mandi Mullins and I in the Disability Services Office are so proud of Catie and what she has accomplished since graduation. We are confident that she will continue to be a meaningful, important voice in society.”

Mullins is an office specialist in the Learning Center at EOU who also worked with Mcnerney.

Mcnerney just turned 37 and is now a grandmother for the first time. Her daughter is all grown up with a family of her own, living in Tennessee. Her son just turned 19. As her children’s lives are just now beginning, so in a way, is Mcnerney’s.

She returned to La Grande in 2004 and after quitting her job at the Flying J Truck Stop, she is starting over with a new career that will allow her the time she needs to promote her books. She is also engaged to someone who shares and supports her goals, and is even starting to work on an outline for her very first novel called, “Too Young to Know.”

“I want to give something back, and help someone at the same time,” she says.

Mcnerney’s long-term goal is to work for the Department of Human Services’ teen parenting program and tutor college students during the summer. She would also like to begin gathering personal stories from students and write more books offering tips and hints on overcoming life’s hurdles. 

Although she has encountered many obstacles, both physically and emotionally, Mcnerney beams with self-confidence and excitement as she looks toward the future. And as for the feelings of shame and the fear of disappointment she felt so long ago when her chances of becoming an Olympic gymnast were dashed? They are all behind her, she says. She has no regrets.

“My mom never said, ‘I told you so.’ She has always been supportive,” she says.

Mcnerney tries to be just as supportive of her children, while trying to set a good example for them. She believes that it doesn’t matter how late in life someone decides to follow their dreams, just as long as they do.

“Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help, but if you think you can do it on your own, give it a try and you might find out you’re better than you thought you were,” she says.

In the dedication of her latest book Mcnerney writes, “Thank you Misty and Nathan, for never giving up on me when I was on the verge of tears and cranky from lack of sleep . . . I love you more than anyone in the world, and I hope that your adult lives are full of all the love and happiness that you gave to me while you were growing up. Love always, mommy.”

 

Contact Us | Alumni | Government Relations | President's page