From the U.S. Army to the classroom, doctoral candidate Tyler Bacote’s journey is a powerful reminder that education can transform lives.
When Tyler Bacote stepped onto the UNC Greensboro campus in 2024, she knew what she wanted. The U.S. Army veteran tried on careers as a paralegal and in the corporate world before choosing UNCG’s School of Education to complete her doctoral degree in educational studies with a concentration in higher education. The deciding factor: the school’s social justice orientation.
Under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Jesse Ford, Bacote’s passion has ignited, giving her opportunities to learn and to lead. She developed and now teaches the Black Women’s Leadership and Development course, and has become a mentor to other students.
“I fell in love with teaching because I know what education has done for me and what it could do for other people from all different backgrounds,” Bacote says. “Education is transformative.”
A path paved by the GI Bill
Bacote came to UNCG following a few turns in her career. After completing high school in her hometown of Columbia, S.C., she immediately joined the U.S. Army. The daughter of military parents, she was reared knowing that veterans’ benefits could serve her well.
“I figured that by the time I got out of the Army at age 22, I could be set up as an adult with some savings and the GI Bill to continue my education,” she says.
Bacote was stationed first in Fort Carson, Colo., for basic training before attending the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, VA, where she trained to become a paralegal. Then she was deployed to Eastern Europe where she practiced as a paralegal specialist.
During four years of active duty, she also earned an associate of science degree in psychology. When she was discharged from the Army, she enrolled at UNC Charlotte for a B.S. in psychology, followed by a M.S. in business administration and management.
“The hottest job you could have at the time was consulting,” she recalls. She educated herself about the large consulting firms and two months after graduation she was hired by Deloitte’s Government and Public Service Sector, first as an analyst and then as a consultant. Her main clients were the Veterans Administration and the State of Georgia.
In time, she became disenchanted with the corporate environment. That’s when her curiosity and her love of learning led her to the field of higher education.
A mentor and kindred spirit
As Bacote anticipates completing her doctoral degree in 2027, she has her sights on becoming a university professor of education. That passion has been nurtured by her mentor, Dr. Jesse Ford.
“Dr. Ford took me under his wing,” Bacote says. “I give him a lot of credit because he has allowed me to be myself.”
In Ford, Bacote found a kindred spirit. They share their department’s social justice orientation, which was a deciding factor in Bacote’s choice to attend UNCG. Ford, whose research interests focus on the experiences of Black men in higher education, arranged a graduate assistantship for her and gave her teaching opportunities, including in his own master’s course.
“It has been great to watch Tyler thrive in the classroom and engage with her peers,” Ford says, “She has always seemed more like a colleague than a student. When she got here, I was struck not only by how much she knew, but by how much she was willing to stretch. Everything she took on, she did well.”
“UNCG has given me a lot of responsibility,” she says. “I built my own course, Black Women’s Leadership and Development, from the ground up, and I still teach it. That course gave me an opportunity to cultivate a space for young Black women who are ambitious, who aspire to be leaders and who take themselves seriously.”
She also teaches Changing the World through Education, which enables her to mentor undergraduates who aspire to become educators. Though the latter course had been taught before, Ford says Bacote has made it her own.
“I want other students to take advantage of all the opportunities that are available and not to be afraid to reach out,” she says. “People at UNCG are open, willing, and committed to making you a better professional and academic.”
Written by Mary Daily
Photography courtesy of UNCG School of Education and Tyler Bacote
