Rising from Rock Bottom

“I’m here today because I found sobriety.”

Those are frank words from a man hesitant to share his story. But it is a success story.

At 43, Charles Castle, Jr. is not your typical college co-ed. He has fought hard for everything he has: sobriety, relationships, grades, and even his job. His journey to UNO CBA is littered with second chances, determination, tenacity, and hard work.

“I did not do well in high school. I was lazy and disinterested. I barely graduated with a 1.57 GPA. College was not really in the cards,” Castle said. Dreams of a military career ended with a football injury, so Castle entered the workforce.

After graduating high school, he moved to Omaha and began to struggle with alcoholism. Castle bounced from job to job, and in his early 20’s he decided to get into the trades. He worked in construction as an apprentice concrete finisher and even helped build some of the buildings in Aksarben Village.

“Then alcohol took more and more of my life and started leading me into trouble. At 29 I got my third DUI and I decided to do something different this time. That was when I got sober by joining a 12-step program… and taking their steps. Slowly my life started to change. I took some direction in my life, and I began working at a manufacturing firm,” Castle said.

At this point, Castle was five years sober, gainfully employed, engaged to be married, and had just bought a house when his sponsor reminded him of an old promise he had made to himself.

“He said, remember a few years ago you said something about wanting to go back to school?” Castle said. He was working at Lozier and wanted to be a supervisor. The company seemed to want their supervisors to have at least an Associate’s degree.

So, despite what felt like insurmountable odds, Castle started the ball in motion to eventually come to UNO CBA.

“I knew with my transcript I was not going to get into UNO, I would have to start at a community college. I was accepted at Metro Community College,” he said. Castle and his wife, Rucha, were married in August of 2016, and he started his college journey that December as a part-time student.

"I owe so much to my wife and her family. As the daughter of two college professors, she and her family have supported me throughout my entire college journey. On my first day at Metro, I wanted to quit, but my mother-in-law convinced me to stay. My father-in-law was invaluable in helping me edit my papers and guiding me to find my voice. My wife, a Creighton graduate who also took accounting classes at UNO, has been a great help too," Castle said. "M brother-in-law, who holds a Ph.D. and teaches accounting in Chicago, has occasionally assisted me with particularly difficult questions."

Castle graduated from Metro on a Friday in May 2022, and he started classes at UNO CBA the following Monday. Now a full-time student, he has been grinding away, taking classes every semester, including each summer, trying to finish his degree, while working part-time for a good portion of that time.

“Lozier started posting accounting jobs that I felt like I was qualified for, but they couldn’t work with my part-time work schedule [so I could continue going to school] or some jobs just weren’t a good fit. So, six months after I graduated from Metro, I quit and took a tax internship. I’ve actually worked a few internships since then. This summer, I have a full-time internship lined up with KPMG, a Big Four accounting firm.”

Castle has gone from a student who once barely graduated, to maintaining a 3.98 GPA and being on the Chancellor’s List all but one semester of his collegiate career. He is a member of Beta Alpha Psi—the International Honor Society for Financial Information Students and Professionals and has served as the president and currently serves as the membership chair. He has been inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the International Business Honor Society.

Castle has been sober for over 13 years now. Once he graduates in May 2025, he will have a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with concentrations in accounting and business analytics with a secondary concentration in economics. He currently plans to become a tax accountant after graduation. It’s quite a change from 25 years ago. Castle is grateful for all the help he’s gotten along the way, from his family, other members of the 12-step organization, and the faculty at UNO.

“A lot of people have made sacrifices to get me here and I want to make it worth it. I am the product of a lot of people’s efforts,” he said.