2020 Success Stories: Kaicie Boeglin
Kaicie Boeglin’s journey at the Community College of Rhode Island was similar to the
blank canvas she often worked from as the Editor-in-Chief and writer for the college’s
student newspaper, The Unfiltered Lens.
There were constant edits and rewrites, and multiple plot twists, but everything that happened along the way led to where she is now, graduating May 29 as CCRI’s student commencement speaker with an Associate Degree in General Studies. She will transfer to Rhode Island College next fall through the Joint Admissions Agreement (JAA) program to study journalism.
Boeglin, a 20-year-old Coventry native, first-generation college graduate and Rhode Island Promise Plus scholar, enrolled at CCRI with the intent to eventually earn a PhD in History. Over time, her priorities shifted, and a series of life-changing events led her to pursue communications, which revealed itself as one of her many strengths during adversity.
The journey, much like one of the several hundred stories she authored for The Unfiltered Lens, constantly evolved. With no car until she was 19, Boeglin took public transportation to the Knight Campus, perfected the art of time management – “I always wanted someone to see my effort,” she said – and worked off campus in addition to her contributions to The Unfiltered Lens and CCRI Radio.
When she found out she had been selected as the student speaker for this year’s virtual commencement ceremony – the first of its kind due to the COVID-19 pandemic – Boeglin broke down in tears.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” she said. “I felt like everything I had done and been through growing up all came together for me. The fact I was finally recognizes makes me feel like I can move on with my education.”
As a high school student, Boeglin always prioritized her education. She loved to write – anything from stories and poetry to song lyrics – and she had a tremendous passion for music, which first led her to The Unfiltered Lens as a music columnist. She also hosted her own show on CCRI Radio.
Initially, History was her passion, a field that piqued her interested after she lived in France for three weeks as part of a student exchange trip during her senior year at Coventry High School. She struggled in her first semester at CCRI, but, motivated by her never-ending quest for validation – a lot of which she stays stems from growing up without her father and living at home with her mother, who often had to work long hours – she pressed forward. Then, in January of 2019, tragedy struck when her childhood friend died in a car accident.
The two met at a yard sale when Boeglin was 7; the friend lived next door to Boeglin’s grandmother. Even though Boeglin admits they had grown apart in recent years, they had made plans to get together and reconnect when Boeglin received a phone call from her friend’s brother with the tragic news.
“I was gutted,” she said. “I didn’t understand how or why it happened, or how to really process it.”
Boeglin credits her professors at CCRI with helping her stay on track over the next few weeks, allowing her to take time when she needed it to step away from the classroom to grieve. After posting a 2.45 GPA in the fall semester, Boeglin vaulted to 3.56 by the end of the spring of 2019, even as she dealt with the emotional fallout from her friend’s death. More importantly, she found a silver lining within the tragedy, launching fundraising efforts to help the family cover the costs of the funeral expenses. This, Boeglin says, is what helped her discover her true passion for communications.
“I told myself when she died that I would not let her spirit die out. Having to use
all the skills I was going to school for while networking for this fundraiser, I realized
what it truly meant to have skills in communication,” Boeglin said. “I learned what
those skills could really do.
“I found my real purpose. I’ve always been a writer. I’ve always been promoting and
marketing. I love words and phrases.
“Everything I’ve done in life has brought me to communications, and the CCRI community was so important for me. Had it not been for my professors, especially in my second semester, I would have fallen down a rabbit hole.”
Boeglin’s dedication to the field helped her revitalize and rebrand The Unfiltered Lens. Short-staffed during most of her time as editor, she put in long hours revising, writing and publishing entire editions, covering a wide variety of topics from on-campus events to a recap of Super Bowl LIV. She also continued working off campus, recently switching to a hospitality position at the Extended Stay America hotel, with the intent to save money for tuition at RIC.
The versatility Boeglin showed at CCRI reflects her youth as an only child struggling to find her place. “I never really fit in. I didn’t have a spot,” she said. “I made my own spot.”
Boeglin characterized herself as a “misfit” in high school, not in a conspicuous way, but rather as someone who appreciated and accepted people and passions from all walks of life – “a combination of Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall from The Breakfast Club,” as she describes it.
The irony is the “misfit” eventually found the perfect fit at CCRI, completing a journey that – despite multiple rewrites and edits along the way – ended with her as the quintessential voice for the Class of 2020, a class that has endured more change and challenges than any in recent memory.
“I’m excited to show off my tassel and cap, put my degree on the wall and say, ‘I did it!’” Boeglin said. “Now I can start my life and make something for myself.”