Terence Sinclair-Wood: From Associate to Doctorate

By Ali Werden, Marketing Intern

Broke, bored, and struggling to find happiness, Terence Sinclair-Wood knew being a travel agent for the rest of his life just wasn’t going to cut it.

Colorado Mountain College graduate Terence Sinclair-Wood
At Colorado Mountain College, Terence Sinclair-Wood was named to the USA Today All American Academic Team.

Terence hated forcing a smile every day while suggesting all the well-known tourist destinations to over-eager travelers.  He disliked the repetitiveness. He despised his tiny office. Terence knew something in his life needed to change, drastically.  But Terence wasn’t sure how he could do something so extreme, especially at his age. It seemed he had already selected his life route; there was no changing it now that he was middle-aged. Even if Terence could muster up the determinism to modify his lifestyle, his financial situation wouldn’t allow it. There was no way Terence thought there’d be any solution to this dull daily routine.

But this May, Terence Sinclair-Wood, better known around the Glenwood Springs area as Terry Wood, received his Doctorate of Education from Hamline University. Terence says the path was a long and difficult one but it was well worth it. Terence remembers it all starting with a life-changing opportunity at Colorado Mountain College.

With the assistance and helpful advice of a CMC counselor, Terence realized that he needed to pursue a career that he would actually enjoy doing for the rest of his life. He started with English introduction courses at the Spring Valley Campus. These courses sparked an interest in Terence that he didn’t immediately recognize.

Terence began to explore the field of English and Literature. He was pleasantly surprised with what he had discovered. His life began to take a drastic turn. With his newfound passion for the pursuit of his education, Terence soon became a teacher’s assistant for a number of professors at Colorado Mountain College. Through his part time associate job, Terence began to build strong relationships with many of the staff members around campus. Even with only a year of college experience under his belt, Terence remembers feeling a sense of belonging and an even stronger awareness of the faculty and student connection around the college campus itself. Terence found that Colorado Mountain College’s sound sense of community, not only between professor and student but also on a peer-to-peer level, helped him feel as if he was truly part of the CMC family.

Terence graduated from Colorado Mountain College in 1993 with his Associate of the Arts degree. Along with being named to the All American Academic Community College Team, Terence was also deemed Best Theatre Student as well as Best Psychology Student for CMC.  But even with time and finances working against him, Terence accepted his dreams and over-came his doubts in an effort to better his life.

Terence says that because the “teaching was brilliant,” he knows he received an “awesome education” at Colorado Mountain College. After receiving his AA, he was encouraged by CMC faculty to advance his education even further. In 1995, with the help of both CMC and Regis University, Terence received his Bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in both Philosophy and Religion.

Although tempted to stay in the mountains after graduating with his BA, Terence decided to pursue earning his Master’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley in 1997. Terence remembers attending a larger university and truly missing the personal experience he had received at CMC. Terence also realized what a great opportunity it was to work with the faculty and staff of such an intimate community. Since Terence still holds on to many positive experiences from Colorado Mountain College, he continues to express his “good feelings about the school” to his family and many of his close friends.

Terence said that if it weren’t for the encouragement of the CMC faculty and staff he would have never been able to achieve his dreams. Terence distinctly remembers faculty members constantly telling him, “You can do it. Even if it’s difficult, you can do it”. No matter the number of obstacles Terence encountered while being a full time student and working to pay for the entirety his education, he said he always felt a “sense of encouragement” from the staff at Colorado Mountain College. Terence believed the faculty’s positive mindset helped to create an inner sense of accomplishment in the college’s students.

Attempting to re-create the intimate setting he was once a part of at Colorado Mountain College, Terence began teaching advanced classes at a personal level to high school students. For the past ten years, Terence has lived in Plymouth, Minnesota, where he currently works at Cretin-Derham Hall, a private High School in Saint Paul. Terence loves teaching and he says he sees himself still “teaching for a number of years, hopefully at the college level though”. If he doesn’t end up teaching at a university, Terence hopes to educate other teachers on the “arts advocacy and their important part in education today”. Because of his experience at Colorado Mountain College, Terence knows that “although most believe arts are marginal, they are in fact an essential part of education, absolutely essential”. Terence’s recently published dissertation, Making Meaning: A study of the Social, Psychosocial, and Spiritual Impact of High School Theatre on Developing Adults, proves to support Terence’s theory on the importance of the arts in public schools.

Terence and his wife, Lorna, currently live within walking distance of Medicine Lake in Minnesota. The happy couple live with their two Persian cats, Luchy and Pukka, and enjoy their beautiful natural surroundings on a daily basis.