Back in school, moving ahead

The Enquirer
October 29, 2007

Local NAACP helps with scholarships
by Kari Wethington - kwethington@nky.com

Sometimes life gets in the way of school.

For students such as Kinta Joseph of Erlanger and Alexandra Stulz of Florence, personal and financial setbacks once made pursuing a college education seem like a stretch.

But with determination and planning, they're hitting the books in pursuit of degrees.

Joseph and Stulz, students at Gateway Community and Technical College, received $500 scholarships from the Northern Kentucky Branch of the NAACP in Covington. A third Gateway student, Rashid Harrison of Southgate, also received a $500 scholarship.

The awards will be formally presented at the seventh annual Freedom Fund Gala on Saturday at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center.

Since 2000, the Northern Kentucky branch of the NAACP has contributed more than $32,000 in scholarships to students attending NKU (including Salmon P. Chase College of Law), Gateway Community and Technical College and Thomas More College.

"We work with the institution to identify students on a need basis," said Jerome Bowles, president of the Northern Kentucky Branch of the NAACP. "There are many other factors that we consider, including academic standing."

The group awards about 10 scholarships each year, presented at events throughout the year, said Bowles.

Current and entering college students can also apply.

"One of our major focuses is education, and we want to make sure we are providing resources to students to be successful in their education," said Bowles. "We're very fortunate to be in the place to help provide those scholarships. It's our way of giving back to the institutions that work so hard to educate the students."

Funds for the scholarships come from corporate sponsors and money raised at the annual gala.

FROM KATRINA TO COLLEGE

A mother of four with a part-time job and a full courseload at Gateway, Kinta Joseph, 36, has been on a long journey to get to where she is today.

In 2005, she was living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit.

"We got out early enough, thank goodness," she said.

Joseph fled with 17 members of her family, packing into a van and desperately seeking shelter.

"There were not any hotels available and they didn't have any shelters so we ended up pulling over and sleeping on the side of the road because there was nowhere else to go," she recalled.

Her uncle talked to a man who was headed to a shelter in Mississippi, so Joseph and her family followed him. They were taken in by a church, where they stayed for about a month.

The church's sister church, Lakeside Central United Methodist Church, helped Joseph relocate to Northern Kentucky.

"When I heard Kentucky - I worked at the racetrack in New Orleans - and I said, 'I know they have the Derby, I know they have horses,' but I had never been to Kentucky before," she said with a laugh.

Though she misses her hometown, and has been back to visit, Joseph has been successful setting her life up here. She has found educational opportunities that she didn't have back home, she said.

"Back home, I always wanted to go to school, but I always had to work full-time jobs, sometimes two," Joseph said. "I have four children and I'm a single parent - it just wasn't an option for me."

Here, she learned she could go to school and get assistance with child care and transportation.

Joseph started at the Urban Learning Center in 2006, and is now in her third semester at Gateway. In a year she'll have her associate's degree in criminal justice.

"My biggest fear was sitting in a class with 18- and 19-year-olds that knew everything, and that I wouldn't feel comfortable," she said. "Well it's not like that at all! You have the 18- and 19-year-olds coming to ask you for help."

Joseph feels at home in her new life in Erlanger. She's the president of the college's new Multicultural Student Organization, and she made the dean's list.

Joseph said the NAACP scholarship is her first, and she couldn't be happier.

"It made me feel like I was doing a lot and accomplishing what I set out to do," she said.

BACK ON TRACK

After some unexpected time away from school, Alexandra Stulz, 20, is thrilled to be back, and to have financial assistance to pursue her degree.

She's in her second semester at Gateway, where she's studying toward an associate's in science. She plans to go to NKU, and then the College of Mount St. Joseph, to become a physical therapist.

"Hopefully I just have three more years left," she said.

"If I didn't get grants and scholarships, I would be paying for all my schooling out of my own pocket - and that's a lot to pay at the end," Stulz said.

When Stulz was 17 and a student at St. Henry High School, she had to drop out due to health problems that led to colon surgery.

"I was devastated" about having to drop out of school, she said. After healing from surgery, Stulz decided to get her GED.

Studying and having something to work toward again kept Stulz hopeful.

"Studying for my GED helped me through that time - it was definitely helpful," she said. "The teachers were really supportive."

Since she's been back in school, Stulz has not wasted a moment. She has a 3.8 grade point average, is involved with extracurricular activities and worked a part-time job.

Even her recent diagnosis of fibromyalgia isn't holding her down.

"It makes going to school a lot harder, because with fibromyalgia, it's all-over body pain," she said. "And when you don't feel good you don't want to do anything. But you have to bite the bullet and do it."

Stulz's struggles have made her stronger - and her medical setbacks helped direct her to a career in physical therapy. "It makes me want to help other people - it makes me want to be in the medical field definitely," she said.