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Each year, the Soroptimist International Organization provides an award called the Live Your Dream Award, a program for women who provide primary financial support for their families. The awards give women the resources they need to improve their education, skills, and employment prospects. This year, Soroptimist International awarded some very deserving Coastline women.
The mission of the organization strives to reshape the lives of women with education and enabling opportunities. The Soroptimist Organization seeks to help women reach their full potential, have equal opportunities, and an equal voice in the world. The organization is global in its efforts with 121 countries and 72,000 members involved to help women around the world. The Live Your Dream Award is awarded to women who are the primary financial contributors to their families. Most of the winners of this award have overcome huge difficulties such as domestic violence, trafficking, and sexual assault. We like to recognize all of our students' successes at Coastline College, especially if they are overcoming obstacles to further their education.
The ladies of Coastline who were awarded the Live Your Dream award had to overcome enormous hardship to get to where they are now. Abusive relationships, first-generation immigrants, and mental health issues are just some of the obstacles these ladies had to overcome. Being a full-time student can be hard, being a full-time student with a full-time job is difficult, and being a full-time student as a single mother with a job is a major accomplishment. By attending college and doing everything they can to turn their lives around, these hard-working single mothers are making a difference in their children's lives. Lolita, Connie, Megan, Gina, Jessica, Crystal, and Katherine, are all doing the unthinkable and will be able to achieve great things with the assistance of this award.
Lolita is working on her Paralegal Studies degree and is a first-generation college student. She has plans to transfer and then get her bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice. Once she is done with her bachelor's degree, she plans to transfer to law school. Ultimately, Lolita would like to represent and help low-income families get the legal help they deserve.
Connie has a 3.5 GPA and is working towards working with special needs children. She is currently wanting to get her bachelor's degree in Special Education to someday help preschool and kindergarten students.
Megan is working on getting her associate's degree for transfer in Computer Networking. She has worked with a Coastline College academic counselor to get her the right educational foundation she needs.
Gina, who was once homeless, had suffered from sexual trauma and overcame an addiction to get to where she is now. She wants to become a nurse and work in a children's hospital. After seeing her 2-year-old son get treated in the hospital, it gave her the idea to become a nurse as well.
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Jessica, who was once incarcerated, wants to provide a better life for herself and her child.
Crystal is working on getting her degree in Psychology and wants to create more opportunities for herself and her child.
Katherine is a mother of three and was previously in an abusive relationship. She works as an office coordinator and thankfully has a supportive female boss who wants to see her succeed. Katherine is a part of the CalWORKs program at Coastline and eventually wants to become a medical billing coder at a Kaiser Hospital.
Obviously, a lot of persistence, grit, and determination drive these Coastline students. The Live Your Dream Award ranges from $1,000- $1,500. That's a great award that will help offset the costs of education, books, childcare, tuition, and transportation. According to Education Data Initiative, the average cost of textbooks for community college was above $1220. The average cost of tuition in California was $3,820 - thankfully awards such as the Live Your Dream Award can help with these costs. The cost of attending college and acquiring textbooks is expensive, but thankfully the Soroptimist Organization is doing wonders for many deserving women.
A special note about the Soroptimist Organization is that they give more than $2.8 million in educational awards to about 1,700 women across the globe! According to the Soroptimist Organization, “Since 1972, we've distributed more than $30 million in education awards to 30,000 women making a better life for themselves and their families.”
Check these stats out about the Soroptimist Organization:
At Coastline College we applaud these ladies who have been through tough times and who are working towards a higher education. We know that the path forward is not always easy, but thankfully Coastline and organizations like the Soroptimist Organization are here to help you make your dreams come true. It is inspiring to see and hear stories of single mothers who overcame past traumatic experiences. I believe that all these ladies have a great future ahead of them and will continue to do great things!
