Dorm moms leaving behind more than just job

by Courtney Ortega, editorial assistant

The job of a mother is no easy feat for anyone.

Yet imagine being mother to 60, all of whom are young women. What might seem like a nightmare for most has been the reality for Nakina Carson and Betsy Ferguson, residence hall directors for Gillespie Hall and the Smallwood Apartments, respectively.

Yet now as the fall semester draws to an end, these two women who have played mother, confidante, and friend to countless pack up their belongings and prepare to leave the place they’ve come to know so well.

Originally from Oklahoma, Carson attended Euthal Indian Boarding School and Haskell Institute while living in Lawrence, Kansas. A far cry from Texas, Carson eventually found her way to Levelland and the SPC family through her sister, who worked at the college at the time.

“They were in need of someone, so I came and applied for the job, and Dean Carol Long hired me,” says Carson.

The job so happened to be the one she now occupies today, eight years later, as residence dorm director of Gillespie Hall. It is a job that has entailed much more than just helping those living in the dorm, but also helping develop young, independent women. Carson has done it all, whether by teaching the girls to do laundry, a chore that many to do not know how to perform on arrival, or guiding them through matters in their personal lives.

As Carson looks back on her eight years, she reminisces about the many people who have come into her life and how she will dearly miss them.

“I will miss the girls and all the people that I know on campus,” Carson says. “There are so many of them that have truly blessed my life.”

Yet as she retires, it is very much a bittersweet moment and chapter in her life. It is a moment that Carson is determined to make the most of, as she speaks excitedly about her plans for life after SPC.

“I have a prison ministry, where I’ve visited prisons such as the one in Littlefield, in which I’ve been a part of for six years,” Carson says. “So I’ll be doing that. And of course I plan on spending lots of time with my family. I’m not going to retire, I’m going to refire!”

Hailing from Sanderson, Texas, Betsy Ferguson attended Sanderson High School in her early years. She eventually became a member of the SPC family in 1989, when she inquired about a job, and as she says, “got lucky”, when she was hired on the spot.

Ferguson has served 18 years at SPC, 12 as dorm director and six with the SPC Campus Police. Ferguson describes her current job as more than that of an authoritative figure, but as a friend and guidance counselor in the personal lives of the girls.

Looking back, Ferguson finds the ending of the semester bittersweet.

“I’m going to miss all of it, especially the students, and the getting to know them so well,” Ferguson says. “I’ll miss it all, the good and the bad. And of course, I’ll miss the faculty.”

With students a big part of her life here at SPC, Ferguson promises that they will remain in her life. She plans to include them in wherever her new venture takes her, as Ferguson moves at the end of the semester to her new home in Post.

“Students will definitely be a part of my new career,” Ferguson says. “I’m looking to work with Snyder I.S.D somehow.”

Looking back, Carson and Ferguson agree that the most challenging, as well as rewarding, aspect of their jobs is getting to know each of their girls on a personal level.

“The girls need to know that they can trust you and confide in you,” says Carson. “They get to know you, and you get to know them, and there is no one alike.”

Ferguson has learned this too, finding over the years that not one single student she has come in contact with has ever been quite like another. That is something, she says, that you must learn to adapt to.

“You have to get to know them,” says Ferguson. “Figure where they come from and what they’re about. No one is ever alike.”

If the lives of the students they impacted is any indication, as they make their final departure, it seems that Carson and Ferguson have conquered their biggest challenge.

Betsy Ferguson is retiring after 12 years as dorm
mom at Smallwood Apartments.


Nakina Carson is retiring after eight years as
dorm mom at Gillespie Hall.

All photos by Amber Henderson/Plainsman Press