Dona Nichols When students suggest taking a break from college, Dona Nichols advises against it.
“I took a semester off that lasted 20-something years,” says Nichols. “I know how quickly students can sidetrack their education. I also know how difficult it is to get back on track.”
Nichols worked as a sports writer, magazine editor, bartender and disc jockey before deciding to return to school. Then, just one semester afterward, Nichols found out she was pregnant with twins.
Nichols took a semester off to give birth, but was determined not to stay out any longer. She scheduled her classes around feedings and diapers.
Nichols says there were constant reminders of the generation gap between her and her classmates.
“I always scanned the classroom to see if there were any other returned students like myself,” says Nichols. “I did my homework with one baby on my back and another on my knee.”
When it came time to do an internship, it was another returned student in Nichols’ media law class who suggested she apply at Bay Area Parent magazine.
As a new mom, Nichols knew she had to somehow combine her passion for writing with her duties as a mother, which is how she came up with the idea for a column called “Silicon Valley Mom.”
That internship quickly led to a job as an editor. A month after graduation, the executive producer for the Bay Area TV show, “Evening Magazine,” read one of Nichols’ columns while sitting in a dentist office. Nichols soon was hired to host a weekly segment for the show’s new format.
Nichols still writes the column, and occasionally uses it as fodder for her stand-up comedy routine – another sideline interest.
Nichols continues to juggle motherhood with school, only now it’s as an instructor instead of a student.
Nichols’ husband, Ralph, a former reporter for the L.A. Times, is the journalism adviser at Evergreen Valley College. Their children, Cody, 14, Dylan and Alexis, both 12, used to play “newsroom” when they were younger.
“I’d ask Cody to do something and he’d say, ‘Not now Mommy, I’m on my deadline,’ ” says Nichols.
“I guess that makes us a journalism family. When I come home from work, my husband doesn’t say, ‘How was your day?', he says, ‘What’s the lead?’.”
Nichols is the department’s 100W coordinator. She still scans the classroom looking for the returned students.
“I know every student here faces a challenge and it helps me keep it in perspective remembering that I once sat in the same classrooms, taking many of the same courses,” says Nichols.
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