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Joe O’Dea was finishing up his bachelor’s degree. He only needed to complete a few more classes — not even a full-time semester’s worth.
A star student, O’Dea made dean’s list his first semester and was awarded a scholarship that paid for part of his education for the rest of his time studying construction management at Colorado State University.
But he was anxious to start working.
“I still had, I think, six or seven credits left,” O’Dea told Fox News. “They were filler courses,” like psychology and “letter writing.”
COLORADO GOP SENATE NOMINEE O’DEA AIMS TO TARGET FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY, PUSH BORDER SECURITY, ENERGY DOMINANCE
Joe O’Dea was a straight A college student, but he was ready to start working by his final semester.
(Courtesy: Joe and Celeste O’Dea)
“And they needed a full semester of tuition, which was about 2,500 bucks, I think, at the time,” he continued. “My scholarship covered a little more than half of that.”
O’Dea had put his education on pause once before: he took a break for a few years after high school to work as a union carpenter.
“I’ve had to work my entire life,” O’Dea told Fox News. “Nothing’s been given to me.”
But when a love interest — whom he eventually married — enrolled at Colorado State, he followed her to Fort Collins and started working on a degree of his own. Ultimately, he decided the final semester wasn’t worth the price.
“I dropped out because they didn’t want to pay for another semester of tuition,” O’Dea said. “I needed to get to work.”
By then, he and his wife, Celeste, were married. Together, they started a construction company out of their basement.
Now, more than 30 years later, O’Dea has a realistic chance of unseating Michael Bennet, Colorado’s senior U.S. senator who’s served for 13 years. The Republican challenger trails in the polls, but is within striking distance. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich compared O’Dea to a truck driver who unseated New Jersey’s state Senate…
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Source : foxnews
