Navigating college admissions can be a challenge for anyone. For Melissa Hillebrandt, college marked the end of a long road that began with homelessness on the streets of Tulsa.
Years ago, Hillebrandt was surviving day to day near 81st Street, just down the road from Oral Roberts University.
Each evening, she and a group of unhoused people pooled what money they had to buy discounted leftovers from a nearby pizza shop.
“We would fill up our water containers and any pizzas that had been cut wrong, they would give us a discount on,” Hillebrandt said. “That’s kind of what we would do each day, just find a new way to get to the next day.”
At the time, college seemed impossible. Hillebrandt had left the U.S. as a young woman after marrying a German man and moving to a remote village in Germany. She spent 20 difficult years there, isolated from family and friends.
“My life became solely about meeting his needs and doing what I was supposed to do,” she said. “If I behaved well enough, then I could have access to the outside world.”
She taught herself German in secret using her children’s reading books and television shows. Her husband never realized she understood the language until a local butcher complimented her fluency.
After two decades, Hillebrandt returned to the U.S. with her children and rented an apartment in Green Country.
She enrolled her kids in Jenks Public Schools and tried to make ends meet. It was during this time she met Caitlyn Wunder, a neighbor who remembers her as a skilled cook and a compassionate figure.
“She offered us some chili,” Wunder said. “That chili was bomb, by the way.”
Wunder said Hillebrandt later offered her shelter when she was in an abusive relationship.
“She ended up saying, you can stay here as long as you need.”
But stability didn’t last. Her estranged husband returned to the U.S. to pursue a divorce and custody of their children. Hillebrandt lost both the legal battle and her housing.
“I failed completely at everything that I was trying to do, and ended up homeless and had to let him have custody,” she said.
For a time, Hillebrandt bounced between motels in Tulsa, spending her entire disability check on temporary shelter. Another abusive relationship made her situation worse. After being assaulted in a motel room, she was left vulnerable each time she left the building.
“The man I was rooming with beat me up in the hotel room,” she said. “They kicked him out, which meant every time I left the hotel to go anywhere, to get food or to go to my family insurance appointments, I was at risk because he would hang out in that area.”
She began using methamphetamine and said she was a victim of sex trafficking during this period of homelessness.
Allison Madrigal, founder and CEO of Rescue America, a nonprofit that combats sex trafficking, said people without stable housing are at high risk for exploitation.
“If people don’t have a safe place to stay, they’re very vulnerable for people taking advantage of them,” Madrigal said.
Hillebrandt eventually decided she needed to leave Tulsa behind. She took a Greyhound bus to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she reconnected with her father after 27 years.
In Chattanooga, she discovered the HiSET, a high school equivalency exam.
She passed the entire test swiftly.
“I managed to do the whole high school equivalency thing within two testing days,” Hillebrandt said.
Her determination caught the attention of program staff, who encouraged her to apply to college.
“They said, we want you to apply for your Tennessee Reconnect scholarship and your FAFSA,” she said. “We will work hard to help you get into Chattanooga State this fall.”
She is now enrolled at Chattanooga State Community College, working toward a degree in psychology and a medical tech certification. She hopes to work at crisis centers like the ones that once helped her.
Hillebrandt currently lives temporarily on a farm that is scheduled to be developed soon.
“I’m in a shelter that’s not meant to actually be lived in,” she said.
During the school week, Hillebrandt stays on campus until it closes at 5 p.m. She completes her schoolwork at the Chattanooga State library.
Her goal is to get a psychology degree and a medical tech certification so she can work at crisis centers like the ones that helped her in the past.
Hillebrandt’s educational future is bright. It’s a long way from scrounging a few bucks together for food in Tulsa.
