Jeffrey Tourdot beats odds to succeed

A school dropout who tried to overdose on prescription drugs at age 16, Jeffrey Tourdot beat his odds at success and earned a master's degree in public administration this spring from Upper Iowa University.

It was determined when he was a child in Madison, Wis., that Tourdot had a learning disability. From the fourth grade, he attended special education classes. He moved to Oelwein and was repeating his sophomore year of school when his grandfather died. Tourdot, ready to give up, overdosed.

Then he was noticed by teacher Nancy Miller.

“She told me, ‘you will not fail. You will be something in this world,'” said Tourdot, 33, of Cedar Rapids.

Tourdot went on to earn his high school diploma and was flipping dough at Happy Joe's Pizza Parlor in Oelwein when Miller suggested he work with her special education students as a para-educator. After he did - and succeeded - she challenged him to get a college degree.

Tourdot had to take several prerequisite courses before he was admitted at Upper Iowa because he scored just 15 on the ACT exam. Continuing his para-educator job and going to work at Goodwill Industries, he began college at age 22.

Earning a bachelor's degree in human services with a minor in psychology at Upper Iowa's Waterloo center, Tourdot, at 26, was married with three children. For four years he drove from his home in Cedar Rapids to Davenport, where he worked for Scott County and oversaw a budget of $13 million working with people with intellectual disabilities and indigent needing general assistance.

Today, Tourdot holds a position supervising social workers at Linn County Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Services. He graduated with honors at Upper Iowa's commencement on May 7 after earning his master's degree through Upper Iowa's online Academic Extension Program. He was a speaker at all three commencement ceremonies on campus.

“I want to be that guy that at the end of his life he's remembered for the way he loved others and the way he impacted other people's lives,” he said.

In the more distant future, Tourdot hopes to advocate on Capitol Hill for those with no voice.

By Janell Bradley, Correspondent