Tameka Echols
A Setback Is a Setup For a Comeback.
If I had not gotten ill in June, I don't believe I would have ever learned of www.projectworkingmom.com. To me, to be educated means to have the power. No one can take my education away from me once I have it.
I am a 33-year-old black woman. I live in a suburb outside Chicago with my husband of 15 years and two beautiful children. For the past eight years, I have been employed with the second largest financial institution in the country. On June 2, 2008, my life came to a screeching halt.
I woke up and couldn't feel the left side of my body. I was rushed to the local emergency room for evaluation. As I heard the first analysis, that I was having a stroke, my life flashed before my eyes. All I could think about was how I had not accomplished my goal of getting a degree to help make a better life for my family. I was hospitalized for two days and was sent home on a walker and recommendations to see my primary doctor and a physical therapist. With their help, I am now able to walk again and have full use of all of my limbs.
During this time of recovery, I began to seriously take a look at my life and what I will do with it since I have been given a second chance. I know that having a degree will help me to grow in my company. Not having a degree has kept me from being promoted to numerous positions that I had applied for. Even though I have the work experience, I was not able to meet the degree requirements. Getting a degree is now my primary educational and personal goal.
As a high school senior, I met with the guidance counselor to look into college options. He leaned forward in his chair, pulled his glasses off and said You wont do well at a four-year university. Stick to a vocational or community college. He placed fear in me by saying that college teachers are mean and that I would have to stand in front of 250 students to give speeches and it would be scary. Needless to say, I did not apply at any universities. I decided to go to a business college and become a legal secretary first, and then a lawyer. I was accepted and started attending Northwestern Business College in 1992. Eight months later, my husband had accepted a position out of town and we moved. Immediately, I enrolled in Midstate College in Peoria, IL. Unfortunately, a labor dispute took place and my husbands employer broke the contract. Unemployed, we became homeless and sought help from my parents back in Chicago.
On the first month anniversary on my new job in a bank, I was robbed at gun point and shot at. While healing from this traumatic event, I found out that I was pregnant. I did my best to prepare my body for the new baby and soon obtained a different position within the same bank. With mounting bills from being unemployed and medical expenses from being hospitalized fifteen times before delivering our child, we were forced to file bankruptcy. Three years later, while pregnant with my second child, over 2,500 employees, as well as I, were downsized. 18 months later, the new company I worked for decided to move the office to Connecticut and I was laid off yet again. Finally, at the end of the chain of three lay-offs, I successfully interviewed and accepted a position with the company I work for presently.
In 2007, I decided to apply at Benedictine University and was accepted. Accelerated adult cohort classes were being offered at the local high school one night a week. Regrettably, the classes at this location were cancelled due to low enrollment, and I was offered a transfer to another offsite location 30 minutes from my home. My work schedule and travel time would not allow for me to attend those classes. I leave home at 5:30 am, and return after 6 pm. Therefore, a classroom setting is not an option.
Online programs are an available educational alternative that will fit into my lifestyle. My children are now 13 and 11 and are very independent. My family has always been supportive of me going back to school, and they will not hinder me in completing assigned projects and studying. My husband obtained an Associate's Degree in February, 2008 online and he plans to earn a Bachelor's Degree next. Although we both instill education as a life value in our children, we were forced to interrupt our own learning because we are facing student loans in excess of $30,000.00. In order for me to serve as a role model to my children, demonstrate the importance of formal schooling and pursue my educational goals, I need financial support.
I have not received a paycheck in over two months and I have begun an appeal process with my employer so that I will receive disability benefits until I am fully recovered and able to return to work without any restrictions.
Being able to go to school tuition free would take a load off my shoulders and allow me to achieve my lifelong dream. I have had numerous obstacles that have kept me from completing a degree. I intend to earn a Bachelor of Science Paralegal Degree. This degree, combined with my current personal and professional experience, will prepare me for more available career opportunities in the business world.
I have the determination, patience and courage I need. I have dreamed for a long time; now I am ready to plan, believe in myself and act.
I will proceed with purpose and persistence and I pray and trust that I am now prepared be the first woman in my immediate and extended family to earn a college degree, and positively influence my children, friends and relatives. A scholarship from www.projectworkingmom.com is the way to create the right circumstances for making my dream come true. I stand strong in my vision and faith of seizing this opportunity. It will place my life on a brand new level. Through hard work and support from my family, I will earn the degree, open a restaurant and better the life of my family, thus bringing my personal, educational and career goals to harmony.