Collin Newberry wanted to die when he was a teenager. He was depressed, isolated, and rarely attended school. He believed then that every year of his life would be filled with more of the same – family dysfunction, poor mental and physical health, debilitating accidents and loneliness.

“Every time I’d get a burst of motivation, something would come in and put a stop to it. I felt like I was cursed,” he said.

Certainty that ending his life would further traumatize his family, especially his similarly struggling  younger sister, and his mother, who had endured much pain and tragedy in her life, prevented Collin from acting on his suicide ideations.

Yavapai College helped him find his way out of years of darkness and start clearing a path to a promising future.

At age 18, Collin broke away from his unstable existence in Southern California and returned to his hometown of Chino Valley. “I knew life must go on and I knew it wouldn’t if I stayed.”

At 19 he enrolled at Yavapai College. The decision followed his brief employment in a job that offered little human interaction or brain stimulation and confined him to a musty corner of a workshop. “I decided that job was not for me. That’s when I decided to go back to school,” he said, explaining that he has always loved learning and excelled in school before falling into a veritable black hole around the eighth grade.

“Up to 19 is a blur. I was doing a bare amount of living. I’m not sure if I have forgotten or suppressed memories. All the days were similar. In my mind I just kind of stopped living,” he recalled of his lost youth.

It had been several years since Collin had seen the inside of a classroom when he started at YC in 2021. He chose in-person over online classes, because he said he couldn’t bear to study alone all day. “At this point I was optimistic again about life. I knew I needed to continue to push myself and expand my areas of comfort,” he said.

Collin did push and expand himself. He chose to study psychology “because I would never consider it to be a waste” and found it fascinating. He also dove into and became passionate about philosophy. With the help of caring professors and his own concerted management of his mental health, Collin excelled in school and was accepted into the College Honors program. “That was one of the best things to probably ever happen to me,” Collin said, explaining that he found commonalities and friendships within the CHP cohort.

Next he joined Phi Theta Kappa honor society and, after increasingly “putting myself out there,” joined or founded other campus clubs like the Philosophy, Psychology and the Juggling Clubs. He also began working as a recruitment ambassador and ushered the PTK chapter’s contributions to the Prescott area’s Teen Maze event in which high schoolers are presented with difficult choices and their consequences.

“The opportunity kind of fell in my lap,” he said of his Teen Maze leadership experience. “I could have done the same thing we’ve always done, but instead I worked really hard to make it a lot better than it has been in the past.”

As a recruitment ambassador, Collin said he enjoyed sharing with prospective students “just how much good there is at YC to take advantage of. Everyone at YC, at least in my experience, really wants every student to achieve the best version of themselves that they can.”

Not long into his YC journey, Collin said he began “feeling comfortable with the notion of being loved.”  He also no longer feared that something bad would rear up and “stomp out” the positive experiences coming his way.

In a word, Collin’s word, he was” flourishing.” And the good things just kept coming. Collin earned an All-Arizona Academic Team scholarship – an award that provides a tuition-free transfer to an Arizona university. He also earned a Coca-Cola Foundation Academic Team scholarship and invitations to Arizona university honors programs. He graduated from YC this spring and plans to continue his social science studies at the University of Arizona and abroad.

“It’s been a big journey,” Collin said of his time at YC. “It’s hard to believe that this chapter is closing, and I’ll be starting at new one in August.”  

Collin envisions teaching philosophy at the college level someday. Beyond that, his only certainty is a life of learning.  

“My dream is to be a student for as long as I can. It’s a continuous journey. There’s no end state or level of mastery in philosophy. It is the love of wisdom, the love of understanding. For the rest of my life, I’ll be focusing on the journey not the destination. I don’t think any subject does that as well as philosophy.”

Yavapai College operates six campuses and centers throughout Yavapai County and offers over 100 degrees and certificates, two baccalaureate degrees, student and community services, and cultural events and activities. To learn more about YC, visit www.yc.edu.