Policy Major’s Lived Experiences Inform Service to Others

ATLANTA — When students in Tammy Greer’s class, Citizenship in the Local Community, studied food insecurity, housing insecurity and social welfare programs this semester, they learned their classmate, Shemlyn Earle (B.S. ’24), possessed unique insights on these issues and more.

Not because she had studied them, but because she and her two daughters had lived them.

Earle’s family migrated to New York City from Guyana when she was a child. She had her first daughter at age 15 and has lived on her own since she was 17.

“I was a young, single mom on social welfare,” Earle said. “Things were so bad at times that we stayed in extended-stay hotels. We didn’t have anything. One year, I didn’t have a Thanksgiving meal for my daughters. Church volunteers came by and knocked on our hotel room door with everything we needed for the meal. At that moment, I thought my prayers were answered. And from that night on, I had a passion to help others in my neighborhood.”

Earle began working in dialysis in New York City 17 years ago. Five years later, as rents skyrocketed and her daughters entered high school, she brought her family to Atlanta looking for better opportunities. She works full time as a dialysis technician at DaVita Kidney Care, a job she’s held for 15 years.

Earle enrolled at Georgia State University at the urging of her facilities manager after she’d been turned down twice for a similar position because she didn’t have a degree. DaVita offers tuition reimbursement, and her boss has been flexible about her schedule to make it all work. She chose to major in public policy and nonprofit management to learn more about how to make her passions for service and social change a reality.

“I’ve had to find a way to get myself out of poverty, and it’s been just as important to help my community,” she said. “I want to do what I can to impact others.”

A nontraditional student over age 40, Earle admits it was not easy for her to start an undergraduate program at Georgia State. However, she appreciates how the program and Greer’s class have brought her lived experience full circle in ways that have helped her, and perhaps others, understand policy and public administration from a broader perspective.

“I learned a whole lot in class,” Earle said. “And the crazy thing is, I learned so much about my life. Lots of the experiences I’ve lived through personally were in the curriculum, along with how governments and policies impact these things. I’ve learned a whole lot since joining the degree program.”

Students she shared her experiences with gained new knowledge, too.

“We’d be having discussions about housing or food insecurity, and I was moved deeply by emotion when I talked about the situations I’d lived,” Earle said. “I could tell everybody was moved. Some students even came to me after class and kept the conversations going.”

“While Ms. Earle was mostly quiet in class, she had a way of conveying passion, logic and a sense of real-world consideration that deeply impacted class discussions,” said Greer, a clinical assistant professor and director of the B.I.S. in Social Entrepreneurship in the Department of Public Management and Policy. “Ms. Earle is the type of student a professor like me adores — someone who is determined, fierce and humble. She is a role model and inspiration.”

With her bachelor’s degree in hand, Earle is on track to becoming a facility administrator with DaVita. She has also begun looking for more ways to give to her community, potentially through a nonprofit.

“I’m trying to see how to start an after-school program in my community and help families with food insecurity, blending this assistance together,” she said. “During COVID, I started a program I called Feed Me Tuesdays where I’d set a table in front of our apartment complex and distribute food donated by Publix and Panera. I’d like to start from there and see how to expand. Little things impact people in big ways.”

She also plans to continue her education.

“I’m thinking about the M.P.A. or certificate programs,” she said. “I want to continue to grow and learn.”

Recently, Earle’s daughters Breanna and Shevan told her they were proud of her for finishing the program.

“I’ve started a lot of things, and my father told me that before he died, he wanted me to show him I’ve earned a bachelor’s degree,” Earle said. “This is the first one I’ve finished.”