Vuncia Council retires from Monroe County Learning Bank

Vuncia Council was pleased to see so many people at her retirement party Tuesday night. Council recently retired as the director of the Monroe County Learning Bank, an adult education center operated by Monroe Public Schools.

The celebration took place at the Arthur Lesow Community Center, the original site of the Learning Bank.

“It was a blessing,” Council said. “People came from afar. I'm always glad to see my students."

Colleagues and former students visited from Monroe County, Lansing, Ann Abor and Jackson. Among the attendees was a student who got into trouble at age 16 and ended up at the Learning Bank.

“He finished our program and went on to college. He has a good job as a machinist,” Council said. “He and his wife are buying a house next year. He said, ‘You helped me with that.’"

Council had worked in Cincinnati before coming to Monroe in 2009. She worked for corporations and also started an outreach center in Ohio.

But then General Motors transferred her husband, Frederick (Bill), to Toledo, and the family moved to Monroe. The Councils have three adult children and five grandchildren.

Council applied for a what she thought was a part-time job with Monroe Public Schools. She was tasked to create the Learning Bank, an idea devised by the late David Nixon, president of Monroe County Community College, and Douglas Chaffin, former regional president of First Merchants Bank (formerly Monroe Bank & Trust).

“(The grant said the job) was less than 40 hours for one year. They gave me the grant. It said, ‘Build the program,’ basically. That’s when I realized it wasn’t a part-time job," Council said.

She and others went to conferences and visited other adult education sites to get ideas.

“You just start. We got equipment, books and had one part-time teacher,” she said. “It was small beginnings.”

The Learning Bank opened at the Arthur Lesow Community Center in 2009. It opened at its current location, 1102 E. First St., in 2010.

The program grew through the years.

“The first class had 20. We continued to grow," Council said.

This year, approximately 200 attended Learning Bank programs.

“We were blessed from the beginning," Council said. "We started with two (staff) people. Now, we have six full-time and many part-time. We work with a lot of volunteers."

In addition to GED classes, the Learning Bank offers remediation support, jail programs, offerings for youth who’ve aged out of regular education, English as a Second Language courses and classes at MCCC.

Council said her proudest accomplishments are the students who succeed.

“Every student that finishes or reaches their goal, that’s my accomplishment. That’s why I stayed. I just want each of them to finish and reach their goal and help their families. A lot of them are overcoming a lot of things, like a busy schedule because now they have kids or are working full-time or they have learning challenges. When they finish, it’s always a big deal," Council said.

Lydia Cozier, the Learning Bank's career navigator, has been named the new director of the Learning Bank, Miranda Marshall, Learning Bank assistant, said.

Council plans to stay in this area for now. She hopes to visit her family, travel, rest and do mission work. She also will volunteer at a women’s mentoring center, where she's been involved for 10 years.

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Council also plans to help the Learning Bank as needed.

“I’ll be around and I’ll always be helping. I told the Learning Bank I can assist as needed. I'm only a phone call away. They have a good new leader," Council said. "It has been wonderful working in Monroe with all our partners and volunteers. They’ve been a big part of making this work. I couldn’t do it by myself."

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Vuncia Council retires from Monroe County Learning Bank