In The Community
Students are Honored for their Resilience
Four Women Receive Awards from Soroptimist International of Raleigh
RALEIGH, N.C. (April 1, 2022) – Four Wake Tech students have been awarded Live Your Dream Education and Training Awards for Women® by Soroptimist International of Raleigh. The students, Shabria, Khadijah, Lourdes and Portia, will receive $2,000 each for higher education costs. The Live Your Dream Awards assist women who are the primary source of financial support for their families, offering resources for education, skill building and finding employment.
Each of the 2022 Live Your Dream Awards recipients has overcome enormous obstacles.
Shabria is pursuing an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree in Medical Office Administration. She lost both parents at an early age and grew up without much support. She has weathered divorce and the challenges of being a single mother while working full time and trying to complete her education. She wants to make her parents proud and be a positive role model for her daughter. She intends to complete a bachelor's degree and eventually a master’s in health care management. She is dedicated to contributing to the health and well-being of her community.
Khadijah is pursuing an AAS degree in Nursing and has a lifelong dream to become a midwife. Her early life was unstable, moving from home to home as drugs devastated her family. She lived in a foster home from the age of 8 until she turned 18. She then returned to what was left of her father’s family and cared for her grandmother, who told Khadijah that she had healing hands. That comment sparked her commitment to healing others. Khadijah wants to become a driver of change in her community and support women who have experienced extreme hardship. This award will not only get Khadijah a step closer to her goals but will also allow her to support her younger brother.
Lourdes will complete her AAS degree in Nursing this spring and take the board exam to become a registered nurse. Lourdes came to the U.S. in 2014, and while she struggled with a new language and culture, she knew education would be the key to a better life for her and her daughter. She taught herself English by watching television and reading the news. By the time her daughter started kindergarten, Lourdes was able to enroll in college, where she found her passion for nursing. Her final hurdle will be to complete 200 hours at a hospital while continuing to work and care for her child. This award will provide the financial support she needs to clear that hurdle and finally become a nurse in her adopted country.
Portia is also pursuing an AAS degree in Nursing. She works part-time as a nurse technician in an intensive care unit while in school and raising her two sons, ages 3 and 7. Portia has had many struggles, including the loss of a very dear friend and fellow nursing student to COVID-19. She plans to continue working as a registered nurse while pursuing her next goal of becoming a nurse anesthetist. Portia hopes to work for Doctors Without Borders in the future, to fulfill her dream of helping others and paying forward the support and friendship she has received. This award will provide critical support for building a better life for herself and her children.
Soroptimist International of Raleigh is a local chapter of the global volunteer Soroptimist organization. The Live Your Dream Award is a unique cash grant program that allows recipients to offset any of the costs associated with higher education – tuition, books, child care and transportation. Since 1989, Soroptimist Raleigh has granted more than $65,000 to local women.
Every year, the Live Your Dream Award provides more than $2.8 million in cash grants to head-of-household women in need. As Soroptimists celebrate their 100th anniversary, the Live Your Dream Awards® celebrate 50 years, during which the program has supported more than 35,000 women. The Fels Institute of Government, a research and consulting organization at the University of Pennsylvania, has confirmed the impact of this program in improving quality of life and inspiring recipients to help others and build a better world.
