Teresa McAlister
Ashland Community and Technical College
Background:
Teresa McAlister is a nursing student attending Ashland Community and Technical College who is in the Ready-to-Work Program. Teresa has a 3.7 GPA, works, and is the mother of two children. She was the recipient of the community Women’s Opportunity Award recently honored as a guest April 20, 2004 at Wellington’s Restaurant, Scarlet Oaks Country Club, Poca, WV. She is now eligible to compete for the regional level $3000-$5000 award. Jennie L. Brown, who is the author of Blue Moon Rising, Kentucky Women in Transition, dedicated a chapter to Teresa’s life in 2001.
These are Teresa's own words:
I am Teresa McAlister, a 29 year old mother of two, completing my associate’s degree in ACTC Nursing RN program. Ready-to-work has made being a single working parent, trying to establish a career, a more feasible idea and has been an open window for opportunity. The RTW program is flexible and supportive concerning my class schedules and needs. This time next year I will be graduating as an RN. and hope to be an inspiration to all the other non-traditional students and single parents who need to know "they can".
Most of my life I have been homeless. I was homeless until five years ago, when I began classes at ACTCS. My first child was a year old, and I did not want her to face the hardships I had faced growing up. I also wanted her to be proud of me and know she is able to do the same in her future. I left my mother's home at age 15 into state custody, foster homes, assembly-line girl's homes, juvenile facilities, and some time on the street. My brother and sister were also taken out of the home and placed with other guardians. I requested the court to place my in my aunt's custody, whom I had never met. She agreed, and that was where I finished high school. She was an independent, stubborn, strong-willed woman, who I felt was capable of anything. She was a much needed role model. After high school I was homeless again, until the age of 22, where I found myself at the Shelter of Hope, a domestic violence shelter. For the four years previous I had applied to three colleges in different places, and found that just as soon as FAFSA was completed, that my husband would get us evicted, blow the rent money, or get in trouble with the law. I eventually found out that he was not a "team player" and that I was struggling alone to meet our new family's needs. I got a divorce, moved into Hillcrest apartments, and have been attending college since. My first two years I walked to school. I had started out with only with clothing and my daughter's playthings. No furniture, no family, no sitter, no car, no idea if my struggle would be productive; only my daughter's smile, and the desire to do better for my children and me. I love science, medicine, and the idea of being able to answer anything than my children may one day ask me. I also hope to help and better a few lives along the way, the least I could do for all the giving people who saved me many times from being hungry, cold, lost, and without hope, during my time on the streets.
WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITY AWARDS
The Women’s Opportunity Award, Soroptimist’s major service project, was established by Soroptimist International of the Americas in 1972 to assist women entering or re-entering the workforce in obtaining the education and skills training they need to improve their employment status. Women’s Opportunity Awards are designed to give women heads of household, who provide the primary source of financial support for their families, the opportunity to achieve their career goals—an opportunity they have not previously had, whether because of economic or social barriers, or personal circumstances. These awards are for women who are attending, or have been accepted to, a vocational/skills training program, or an undergraduate degree program.
Women’s Opportunity Awards are cash awards that recipients may use for any expenses related to their educational pursuits. These include tuition and books, housing, child care and transportation. These awards are not scholarships. The program begins at the community level, where award amounts vary. Local winners then become eligible to receive region–level awards. Every year, 29 geographic regions throughout North, Central and South America, and Asia each grant one $5,000 first-place award, and two $3,000 awards. These 29 first-place winners become eligible to receive one of three $10,000 finalist awards.
Eligible applicants must be female heads of household, who are enrolled in or have been accepted to a vocational/skills training program, or an undergraduate degree program. Applicants must demonstrate financial need, and cannot have already earned an undergraduate degree. Only residents of Soroptimist International of the Americas’ 18 member countries and territories are eligible to apply.
The Women’s Opportunity Awards are funded by the Soroptimist Foundation, which provides more than $350,000 for this program.
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