Every Friday during the fall semester, our "Start Here, Anytime" series will spotlight an adult learner who chose to come to Onondaga Community College to pursue new opportunities, new goals, and a new chapter in life. Today, meet Kate Ebersbach.
It wasn't that long ago that Kate Ebersbach was enjoying her summer job, grooming horses. She liked what she did, but eventually realized she needed more. “I wanted a better life for myself. I didn't have a stable income. I felt like there was more out there for me than what I was doing.”
That realization led her back to school, and to Onondaga Community College. A 2012 graduate of Baldwinsville High School, Ebersbach had tried college once before, enrolling in an online program shortly after high school. It wasn't a good fit, and she didn't finish.
More than a decade later, she decided to try again. And this time, she found a path that felt different. “When I heard about Micron and what they were doing at OCC, I found this program and here I am,” she said.
Ebersbach enrolled in OCC's Electromechanical Technology program in the fall of 2025. Knowing that she had been away from school for more than a decade, she started cautiously, taking a lighter course load during her first semester. With guidance from her OCC Student Success Navigator, Ted Mathews, Ebersbach gradually built her confidence and increased her course load. She took nine credits during her second semester, and is taking six classes this semester. “Ted really helped me choose which classes to take and which order to take them in,” she said. “I had no idea about anything because I hadn't been to school so long.”
Since enrolling, her professors have played an equally important role. “I love it here. Everyone is so welcoming. The teachers want you to succeed. I was in Professor (Colleen) Stevens' office every day last semester and she was answering my questions and helping me.”
There is also a family connection to OCC. Her father graduated from the college in 1994, and her twin sister completed her Nursing degree here in 2018. And now, she is writing her own story - and seeing where her degree might take her.
This summer, she worked with the Micron Chip Camp at OCC, helping sixth-grade students explore semiconductor technology and STEM concepts. For someone who entered college not knowing what a circuit was, watching young students quickly grasp those same concepts was remarkable. “I loved it. The kids were great. It amazed me that these sixth-graders could do things that I just learned in college. You're in sixth grade! How do you know how to build a circuit? Until last semester, I didn't know what a circuit was.”
The experience has also given Ebersbach a new perspective on how rapidly STEM education and technology have evolved. “STEM wasn't even around until I graduated high school. When I was in high school, 3D printers were just coming out. And now these kids know all about them.”
Her own education has moved quickly, too. An internship at NY CREATES gave Ebersbach the opportunity to experience a semiconductor cleanroom firsthand. She suited up in the required “bunny suit” and saw what working in that environment was really like. “I loved it,” she said. “Getting that exposure to being in a cleanroom and working in the bunny suit told me it's where I belong.”
Earlier this week, she was inducted into OCC's chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She is on track to graduate in December 2027, and hopes to advance into a career that wasn't an option when she was in sixth grade.
