July 25, 2010

A Friend's Crisis Leads a Onetime Student Janitor to a Research Job

A Friend's Crisis Leads a Onetime Student Janitor to a Research Job 1

Deke Cloyd, On the edge, LLC, for The Chronicle

Garrin Hertel held several manual-labor jobs before going back to college.

Enlarge Image
close A Friend's Crisis Leads a Onetime Student Janitor to a Research Job 1

Deke Cloyd, On the edge, LLC, for The Chronicle

Garrin Hertel held several manual-labor jobs before going back to college.

By Ilana Kowarski

As a custodian at Gonzaga University 11 years ago, Garrin T. Hertel enjoyed discussing history and philosophy with professors as he cleaned their offices.

He was both a full-time history student and a full-time janitor, and he frequently slept as little as three hours a night. Determined to support his family while earning a bachelor's degree, Mr. Hertel had a hectic schedule. "It was hard to juggle all that," he says, "but sometimes you have to face challenges to become who you were