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Starla
Adams traces the bottom of her downward spiral
to the day she received a phone call from
Washington Women In Need...
With help from a two-year WIN education grant, she obtained
her associate's degree this winter, 17 years after receiving
a high-school-equivalency diploma.
"There
was this massive sense of completion after a long, hard
struggle," she says.
That
was just the beginning. A college psychology teacher
recommended Adams for a job as resident manager of a
group home for people with mental illnesses in Kent,
enabling her to attend school full time, live rent-free
and earn $125 a month, in exchange for caretaking and
gardening chores. She has since completed a 60-hour
real-estate course, sold real estate part time and taken
a full-time job unloading armored cars for Loomis.
Four
years ago, her life looked bleak. Her husband had convinced
her that she was a bad parent, a bad wife and an evil
person, before he sought a divorce, she says. She relinquished
custody of her children, now ages 8 and 10, and gave
another baby up for adoption.
Though
she'd held "a million part-time jobs," Adams
hadn't held a full-time job since her first child was
born. Employers "want to see stability and I hadn't
had any," she says.
Adams
held on to a dream, however. She had always wanted to
go to college, so she obtained a federal Pell Grant
and channeled her heartache into studies at Pierce College
in Puyallup. The federal money was insufficient, however.
WIN filled in the gaps.
Adams
began by taking one or two classes a quarter, eventually
escalating to full-time studies. She never earned less
than a 3.6 grade-point average. Today, the degree holds
a prominent position in her living quarters. She has
a new boyfriend who is intelligent and supportive, and
the future seems bright.
"The
confidence, the real me, is back," she says. "I
finally finished something. I finally did something
I wanted to do... It's the only thing I've ever done
just for me."
--
Lori Varosh
Reprinted
by permission of the Eastside Journal.
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2285 116th Avenue NE, Suite 100, Bellevue, WA 98004
Phone: 425-451-8838. Toll Free: 888-440-WWIN
Email: wwininfo@wawomeninneed.org
webmaster@wawomeninneed.org
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