For Fiona Giselle Hackett, Clatsop Community College has been more than a place to earn a degree. It has been a place to rebuild confidence, discover purpose and step into leadership.
Hackett, who will graduate in June 2026 with an Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree in English, has emerged as one of Clatsop Community College’s standout student leaders. Along the way, she has been named to the 2026 All-Oregon Academic Team and selected as a semi-finalist for the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, two honors that recognize exceptional academic achievement, leadership and community involvement.
Hackett’s path to college was not a straight line. After graduating from Seaside High School in 2015, she moved quickly into the workforce and believed she had her future mapped out. She earned a makeup artist certification shortly after high school and later became a licensed esthetician, expecting to build a career in the beauty industry. But when the pandemic upended in-person services and retail locations began closing, the path she had carefully planned disappeared. What followed was a period of uncertainty in which Hackett said she felt aimless and behind while many of her peers seemed to be moving forward. Returning home to Clatsop County and enrolling at Clatsop Community College in fall 2024 became a turning point — one that gave her the opportunity to begin again.
Hackett said her college journey did not begin with confidence. She enrolled at CCC in fall 2024 after years of uncertainty, planning at first to stay fully online and keep to herself while pursuing general studies with the intention of transferring into psychology.
Instead, college opened a different path.
“I was planning on doing everything fully online, just staying hidden,” Hackett said. “But once I got here and started engaging, I found an environment I had been craving my whole life.”
Her early coursework sparked a renewed love for literature, and by winter term she took her first in-person classes. That on-campus experience, especially in the Literature class taught by Dr. Julie Brown and the Small Group Communications class taught by Deac Guidi, changed the direction of her education. “It was the perfect container for me to share my own journey and learn what it was like to stand in front of a class and speak again after many years in isolation,” Hackett said.
What began as a plan to pursue psychology evolved into a deeper calling centered around writing, storytelling and the humanities. Hackett changed her academic focus to English and now plans to continue her education in creative writing, with long-term goals of helping others explore identity, healing and personal narrative through story.
She credits CCC faculty and staff with helping her see new possibilities for herself. “I had no idea that we have our little Harvard on the hill,” Hackett said. “This experience here has been life-changing.”
Hackett’s transformation extended far beyond the classroom. After initially entering college as a quiet, anxious student, she became deeply involved in campus life through a federal work-study position in the library, participation in campus committees and, eventually, student government.
She now serves as AssociatedStudentGovernmentpresident, a role she embraced with a vision of supporting non-traditional students, advocating for the arts and helping other students feel seen and heard.
“I wanted most importantly of all to be the ears and then the voice box for the student stories,” Hackett said. “I knew if I had a hard journey that got me here, there would be others. I wanted students to know their story matters and they belong here.”
Her leadership has focused on student belonging and collective leadership, helping create space for other student voices and ideas to shape campus life. She said one of her proudest accomplishments has been helping ASG function as a collaborative team where each member contributes to making students feel more connected at CCC.
Hackett also became involved in the college’s strategic planning process, bringing a student perspective to discussions about outreach, access and belonging. In one full-circle moment, she helped with Preview Day activities for area high school students, sharing the kind of information about college opportunities she wishes she had received when she was younger.
“Don’t just show up for the attendance,” Hackett advises new students. “Show up for the experience.”
That mindset has helped carry her to statewide and national recognition. Her selection to the All-Oregon Academic Team reflects not only strong academic performance, but also her leadership and service to the college community. As a Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship semi-finalist, she joins a highly competitive pool of community college students from across the country seeking one of the nation’s most significant transfer scholarships.
Hackett said those honors are meaningful not only because of the recognition, but because they reflect how much support she has found at CCC. Among the people she especially credits for support are the entire faculty office suite of Towler Hall 3rd Floor, which includes Communications instructor Deac Guidi, Spanish instructor Fernando Rojas Galvin, and English instructors Kama O’Connor and Dr. Julie Brown. Hacket also gave praise to TRIO advisor Andrew Morgan, who helped guide her academic planning and encouraged her to pursue ambitious next steps.
“The instructors, the staff, my advisors, the students, their belief in me has helped me expand my own belief in myself,” she said.
Hackett has already applied to continue her studies after CCC and is aiming high. But no matter where her path leads next, she says Clatsop Community College will always be the place that helped her reclaim her voice.
“This place has changed my life,” Hackett said. “I would not be who I am today without higher education through this institution.”
Clatsop Community College continues to create opportunities for students from all backgrounds to discover their strengths, find community and pursue meaningful futures. Hackett’s story is one example of how that transformation can begin with a single step through the college’s doors.
