"Go to bed", "MOOOOMMMMM, Help me", "Can you cook me dinner, please?" I hear this every day while I sitting at my computer to work on my college class work. As a mother of three children, I have been working on my bachelor's degree for sixteen years now. I am almost there, I am at third base running to home to get my degree in public health. My education journey has been the hardest for me due to being a single mother to a solo parent, and back to being a single mother. But one thing, I tell everyone, "I got this!" As a caregiver, I had to work around my goals to get my degree. First, I became a mother during my first year of college. I was eight months pregnant, doing my winter finals and presentations. I knew this would not stop me, but I had to pause for a while to focus on my child. My journey was paused until my child was three years old. I went back to school to start back on my educational journey. Well, there was another obstacle to this journey because I needed money to survive. I went back to work and stopped school again. After four years of working and another child, I went to vocational school to become a medical assistant. Honestly, that program was only nine months, but it was hard not to work. Finally, after the third child, a marriage, and a divorce, I decided to go back to school. This is where I am at now. I am the caretaker for three amazing children. My journey is here in 2025 as I restart my education journey at Capella University. I am taking fourteen credits every ten weeks with three weeks in between semesters. I work full time as a contractor worker, take care of my children full time, and do schoolwork every night. I believe that this shows my children that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. I do not identify as a failure with all my obstacles, but I identify as someone who seeks knowledge every chance I get. I do not mind if my children are screaming their heads off while I am cooking, listening to a lecture, and writing an essay all at once. Chaos is my key to success right now. In conclusion, I want to show everyone in my life that I will be successful and graduate from my program in June 2026. I am that close to ending this chapter in my life.

What I heard as a teenager was: “You are going to be just like your mother and father, you are going to be an addict.” Well, I did turn out like my parents when I was in my 20s. I fought for years to stay sober until I met my ex-husband. I went through a lot that including relationships that resulted in pregnancy, living in my car with a 1-year-old, to hiding my addiction from my job. Sobriety was a must seven years ago when I met my ex-husband, or he gave me the ultimatum that changed my life. Sobriety is amazing for me because it has brought me many more joys in my life. My addiction started at the age of 18 years old. I met some “new” friends who introduced me to cocaine. It was a mind-blowing drug that brought me euphoria. Then these so-called friends introduced me to meth because I could not afford cocaine any more. I was in a rough patch in my life journey. It brought me into prostitution to help fund my habit. Then one day, something terrible happened to me, and I called my mom. She came to my rescue. She helped me sober up, and I was living my sober life. I was in school again, pregnant with baby number one, and enjoying my life with my new partner. I stayed sober for 6 years until I met my second child’s father. He reintroduced me to cocaine and fell off the wagon. I was high on and off for 3 years. I was depressed and miserable and wanted out of this life. When I was at my lowest, I met my ex-husband, and he gave me the ultimate demand of my life: get sober or lose everything. This is when I knew I wanted to get sober and live life to the fullest. Since I have been sober for over seven years, I have had another amazing child. I started school again to get my bachelor's in public health. I started therapy for all the traumatic events that happened in my life from birth to now. I also started divorce procedures because I want to be happy again. I went into NA and AA programs that I did not stick through because the programs did not fit my personality, instead, I added healthy and positive coping mechanisms to help me through my sobriety. I also taught myself, as a newly sober person, that I can believe in myself and finish school. I want my children to be proud of me and see how hard I worked to become who I am today. Lastly, I want to take my experience of becoming sober to my community. I want to use my degree in public health, addiction studies, and medical assistant experience, and start a non-profit in my community. I want to start a program that is not faith-based for people who want to become sober from any addiction that one has. I also want to show them how to live a healthy lifestyle with the help of mental health professionals, transitional housing, medical professionals, etc. Sobriety is everything to me. It has taught me how to become a better person who can use healthy coping mechanisms that will make me successful. Sobriety taught me how to help others who were in my shoes. I want to be a person whom someone can talk to, and I listen without any judgment. Sobriety is amazing in my eyes!

Everyone has that one moment in life when they are very proud of themselves. For example, someone who is a first-time college graduate in their family or someone who restarted school. When it comes to me, I have several moments where I am proud of myself, but I have one that I knew I worked very hard to achieve. I am proud of myself for becoming clean and staying sober. Becoming sober has shown me how to live life to the fullest and keep following my journey in life. Over seven years ago, I met my future ex-husband, and we got married. I was still using, and he told me exactly this, “If you keep using drugs and drinking, I will leave you.” I did not want to lose my new family, plus I did not know I was pregnant with our son. When I heard those words and found out I was pregnant, I quit cold turkey. I believe my ex-husband was my saving grace. When I became sober, it taught me to live my life to the fullest. I wanted to take one day at a time. I also realized I needed therapy. I went into NA and AA programs that I did not stick through because the programs did not fit my personality, instead, I added healthy and positive coping mechanisms to help me through my sobriety. I also taught myself, as a newly sober person, that I can believe in myself and finish school. I want my children to be proud of me and see how hard I worked to become who I am today. Lastly, I want to take my experience of becoming sober to my community. I want to use my degree in public health, addiction studies, and medical assistant experience, and start a non-profit in my community. I want to start a program that is not faith-based for people who want to become sober from any addiction that one has. I also want to show them how to live a healthy lifestyle with the help of mental health professionals, transitional housing, medical professionals, etc. In conclusion, I am proud of myself for staying sober for over 7 years. I am showing my children how to live a healthy lifestyle and follow their goals. I also want to help my community in the future with my experiences I went through. Always remember to live life to the fullest and follow your dreams no matter what obstacles you face daily.

Every person will have a story about their triumphs and defeats in their lives, but when it comes to me, I like to put out my triumphs over defeats. I believe that if you take the knowledge from your defeats and apply them to your story, you will become successful in life. I am a mother of three children, ages between 6-15 years old. I just became a single mother as of December 2024. I had to hear from my ex-husband, I was not worth a penny in life because I had nothing for myself. Well, I took those words to my heart, had an AHA moment, and decided to go back to school. I am an undergrad senior at Capella University earning my Bachelor of Science in public health. I will graduate with my degree in Summer 2026. I will also pursue my master’s in public health. I am doing this to show my children that it is acceptable to follow your dreams at an older stage of life. I believe that showing my children, my nieces, nephews, and family members, I would not let a man put me down to achieve my goal of graduating college. I never thought about what I want to do with my degree until now. I want to start different programs in my community to bring healthy alternatives to many different families who deal with addiction. In my community, we are known for many people who have many different types of addictions that people are struggling to stay clean and keep their families together. I believe with the help of the public health sectors; we can bring positive outcomes to keep families together. I believe with my knowledge of community, my education background, and some background in addiction, I could help develop programs throughout my community. I have several programs I would love to start after experience in the public health department. First, I would like to start a low to no cost family therapy group that helps everyone understand what addiction is and how to cope in healthy ways. There is too much stigma in this world that people think addicts are horrible people, but the truth is they are screaming for help. Second thing I would love to start community gardens again to help with food deserts in my community, where people come together to grow and harvest the food. The last thing I want to make a positive impact in this world, I want to help people with little or no means to get proper housing that is livable. By the end of my education journey, I want to bring pride to my children’s face. I want them to go that’s my mom who is making a different in our community.

In every person's journey in their lives, there is variety of obstacles to prevent a person finishing up a dream of theirs. I believe that I deserve this award because of my unique path as a student and mother. In my education journey, I started off as a single mother of one child going to school to become a teacher. Then I became single mother of two children. That’s when I started my technical certificate as a medical assistant. As I graduated with honors, I met my soon to be ex-husband. He told me I did not need to go to work any longer and stay home with now three children. Well as of December 6, 2024, he asked for a divorce. I was not doing okay until the day he told me I was a loser and would not amount to anything in my life. That day was my AHA moment, and I knew I wanted to go back to school. So researched what online programs were going to fit for me. I applied to Capella University with already over 100 credits. I just started in March, and I am excited to be back. The reason why I am pursuing my higher education is to show my children and prove my ex-husband that I am strong, intelligent woman who will make it in the future. I am pursuing my degree in public health. I am not only going to finish my bachelor’s degree in public health by June 2026, but I will also be pursuing my master’s in public health in exactly one year after I graduate in 2026. By the end of education journey, my oldest will be graduating high school and going off to college, I want to show him that it is okay to follow your dreams with all and many obstacles in their way because you never know who is watching you become successful.