Chloe Howard, 20, started her academic journey at Campbellsville University during the fall of 2022, but due to various reasons, she found herself taking a step back from college after only a year. Her story is full of struggles and battles, but she still finds joy and excitement for her future.
Howard is originally from Guatemala City in Guatemala. She was adopted at five months, and she has lived her whole life in Campbellsville with her adopted family.
She’s always been dedicated to education.
“Education to me means furthering your knowledge, bettering your mind, and growing not only intellectually but also into your own person,” Howard said.
Her experience in school has only included homeschooling. Her first public educational experience was at Campbellsville University. Howard enjoyed being homeschooled by her mother for the independent pace. However, she quickly learned to love the college classroom atmosphere.
“I loved being in the classrooms,” Howard said. “I love being able to take notes … I got really lucky with my professors. They were very sweet and really good at what they did so it was honestly a pretty easy transition.”
Howard was part of CU’s freshman Class of 2025, however her school path changed direction abruptly. She stayed enrolled from August 2022 to April 2023 when she felt the need to withdraw.
“I withdrew from college because I was working three full-time jobs and going to school full-time. I felt like a walking zombie,” she said.
During this time, Howard had a lot of mental stress and unstable emotions.
“I knew that what I needed then was to just focus on a job, build up that income and then come back at a later date,” she said. “I didn’t know when that later date was, but I was just trusting God ‘s plan that somehow I’d circle back here.”
In this hard time of her life, she experienced the loss of her brother-in-law. In January of 2023, he committed suicide.
“It completely rocked my world because it was not only affecting me, but my surrounding family,” Howard said.
She experienced loneliness and sadness.
“Throughout this hard time, I learned to praise God in the good and the bad,” she said. “Because either way, he’s there and just having to like lean on him and trust that he knew what was gonna happen in the next day, in the next week.”
A lot of things happened in Howard’s life that caused her to feel overwhelmed and stressed. However, she said God’s love persevered during that time.
A blessing she felt coming from God was her job at Chick-fil-A. She worked there from 2020 to January of 2023, when she quit. However, after she dropped out of college, she wanted to go back to Chick-fil-A so she could still be on campus.
“I came back here to Chick-fil-A because I wanted to go back to college,” Howard said. “My first step for that plan was to get a campus job so that I wouldn’t have to worry about my schedule and then ease my transition back to school.”
Howard talked to her old boss, BJ Atwood, and she immediately let her back on the Chick-fil-A team.
Two weeks after, Atwood asked Howard if she wanted to be moved to Starbucks. Howard accepted.
“When she came back to Chick-fil-A, we were really needing a strong full-time person at Starbucks,” Atwood said. “I thought she’d be a good fit for over here because of her work ethic and her personality. I know I can trust her by herself, and she is also very friendly and nice.”
The quality Atwood appreciates the most about Howard is her strong, hard-working mentality.
“She’s always been a really hard worker and she’s always done whatever she could to help the team,” Atwood said.
Howard’s best friend Sebastian Serrano has been close to her during this difficult time in her life. They met working at Chick-fil-A and became part of the same friend group of Chick-fil-A workers.
“I remember the day she told me that she wanted to drop out because she was feeling very stressed from a lot of things going on in her life,” Serrano said. “I supported her in her decision of course. I was there as a friend, as an ear that could help her de-stress and just let everything out from all the stress that she was facing.”
Serrano is very grateful for their friendship and truly relies on Howard and her advice.
“Chloe has become one of a few people that I can really talk to about anything at any time,” Serrano said. “She is my bestie.”
Serrano loves Howard’s generosity and kindness, and said she’s always thinking about others and wanting to help others.
“The more you talk to Chloe, the more you realize how awesome she is as a person,” Serrano said. “She is always ready to help everybody.”
Howard’s desire to help others is one of the main reasons she wants to go back to school and major in nursing.
Howard is very excited for her new chapter of life and returning to college.
“I’m most excited to just have that purpose and be working towards something,” Howard said. “And the relationships that I’m gonna get to continue and build here.”
Howard is doing everything she can to come back and enjoy her college experience. Howard’s mindset, love for school and the sacrifices she makes to pursue her goals is inspiring for whoever is going through a hard time.
“Don’t let others’ journeys discourage you if you need to take a break,” Howard said. “If you need to let one of your things go, it’s ok, because you can always come back to it.”
