VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

A self-described “lifelong learner,” Libbie Racanelli wanted nothing more than to go to college. She excitedly started her freshman year at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2016. She didn’t thrive as she expected.   

“School was always really easy for me, especially in high school,” Racanelli said. “When I came to college … I felt like I could get away with it [like in high school]. And I just wasn’t able to. I had a really hard time buckling down and really taking school seriously. My grades started to suffer.”

Still, Racanelli looked forward to her sophomore year. But that wouldn’t live up to her expectations, either. She didn’t know it at the time, but after freshman year, she wouldn’t return full time for another six years.

“When I came to college,” she said, “my parents helped me pay. And then second year — three weeks before I was set to [return] — they basically told me I was on my own. … That included my rent and my bills and everything. I was dealing with a lot emotionally that I don’t think I ever realized at the time because I was young. I was 19. … So that really made it hard for me to focus on my studies.”

Because her parents still claimed her as a dependent, Racanelli didn’t qualify for financial aid. Short of taking out private loans, which would come with astronomical debt, there was no way she could support herself while going to school.

“For a while, I was donating plasma to pay my bills,” she said.

With her minimal income, Racanelli could only attend school piecemeal, taking classes here and there. She didn’t think she would ever complete her degree.

“There were many times, especially when I took semesters off, when I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to go back. I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if this is just a waste. What am I even doing?’” she said. “I had those thoughts all the time. … All the time.”

In 2017, Racanelli found steady employment at the Village Cafe — where she still works today — but her situation vastly improved when she turned 24. At that age, she qualified for financial aid on her own. She could finally afford to enroll at VCU full time.

Racanelli never would have known about that if she hadn’t stumbled across the Student Financial Management Center in Harris Hall, which provides VCU students with one centralized location for all their financial aid and accounting needs. There she found a sympathetic ear who helped her navigate the financial aid labyrinth.

“And there were a few semesters that I had entirely paid for by grants, which was amazing,” Racanelli said. “I felt very lucky. [But] there were some years, too, that I learned the hard lesson of if you don’t apply by the deadline, then you’re not getting hardly anything. [The Student Financial Management Center staff] helped me navigate it and explained things to me in a way that I would never have been able to figure out myself.”

However, supporting herself 100% wasn’t the only hardship Racanelli faced. Once someone who loved learning, she no longer approached school with the same gusto. Even though she was finally a full-time student, self-doubt plagued her.

“You’re never actually going to finish. This is all for naught,” a little voice in her head whispered.

“I had never really met anyone who was in an even close to similar situation to me,” Racanelli said. “And especially being an older student, too, I felt I was on the outside. Like, now I’m in class as a 26-year-old, and I have a class with an 18-year-old. I just felt so alone in a lot of ways.”

But she wasn’t. Unbeknownst to Racanelli, her professor had once been in a similar situation.

Virginia Wray Totaro, associate professor and assessment coordinator in University College’s Department of Focused Inquiry, recognized Racanelli’s potential and tapped her to join Focused Inquiry's Undergraduate Teaching Assistant program.

“I was really surprised that she asked me … and really honored,” said Racanelli,who embraced talking to Totaro “about her own college experience and how she struggled really hard at first with grades and time [management]. And she’s a professor now. Clearly she made it. … She was a really big inspiration to me and reassured me that everyone’s on their own path, and you could make it happen if you really want it.”

Totaro says that Racanelli was a natural in the classroom as a UTA.

“She assisted struggling students, developed presentations to help them navigate resources, and modeled intellectual curiosity by sharing insights from her upper-level psychology courses,” Totaro said. “Her enthusiastic yet calming presence made a significant impact on the learning environment.”

Racanelli graduates this month with a degree in psychology and with minimal debt. Mentoring students as a UTA was such a phenomenal experience, she said, that she hopes to continue at VCU in its master’s program in rehabilitation counseling.

“I felt so immensely fulfilled by doing that,” she said. “That was really healing for me because I feel like I was able to give a lot of advice that I wish I would have gotten.”

The biggest piece of advice Racanelli offered her students?

“Talk to your professors,” she said. “Tell them what’s going on in your life. Even if you think they won’t understand, they probably will.”