It’s not always easy navigating the college world without a great adviser. That’s where Bobbie Brown steps in. And she plays several roles: student, teacher, mother and grandmother who went from an honors students to a honors adviser. Most students become acquainted with her when they’re determining their academic paths.

Bobbie is a non-traditional student. Before college, she worked as an accountant and office manager for ten years. During an economic downturn, her company let her go. Everyone was getting laid off and nobody was hiring.

“That’s when I decided to reinvent my life,” she said.

Bobbie enrolled in TCC where she earned her associates degree. Then she came to UTA and graduated with an honors degree in criminology and criminal justice with a political science minor in 2006. She was especially interested in the juvenile justice system and the public affairs side of criminology.

“I didn’t really understand where my passion came from until I was getting my graduate degree in political science,” she said.

All the while, Bobbie helps honors students find their own passion.

“Many students don’t think that they have what it takes to do honors when the reality is that they do,” she said. “Those students I connect very well with. I share a lot with students about where I came from and I know what they’re going through.”

Currently, she’s working on her PhD in Public and Urban Administration with the goal of becoming a full-time professor. She hopes to finish her dissertation about social capital this summer. But she knows it’s important to adapt to whatever happens.

“Life changes,” she said. “Just be flexible. Life will move with it.”