UC Student Receives CLC Alumni Association Scholarship

         Teresa Williams is matter-of-fact as she recounts how, when she was a teenager, her parents’ abandonment of the family due to alcoholism and mental illness derailed her plans to attend college immediately after high school.  She is direct in describing her responsibility for younger siblings, and then a decade lost to homelessness and addiction, and then a hard-won fight to turn her life around.  But she tears up a bit when remembering her pride at graduating with honors from the College of Lake County in May of 2010 with an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Business Management.   News that she was selected to receive the 2011 University Center scholarship from the CLC Alumni Association to support her study toward a BA in Business Administration or Nonprofit Management through North Park University’s School of Adult Learning made her very grateful. 

          “Over the past 6+ years I have successfully managed school on a part-time basis, juggled full-time and part-time jobs simultaneously (working 7 days per week) and maintained a busy household.  Being a CLC graduate and having the University Center here was huge for me.  I’d be hard-pressed to find a university close enough to allow me to attend to my family responsibilities and work two jobs.  I wouldn’t be going to school right now if UCLC wasn’t here.”

          Williams credits North Park’s involvement in the University Center and its generous transfer credit policy for prompting her to continue her education.  When she began her AAS program (typically a vocational program) she wasn’t sure if she would stop with an associate’s degree.  “When I first started, I couldn’t always see that far ahead.  However, when North Park agreed to accept all my credits. . .that made a big difference.  Just because it wasn’t a ‘transferrable’ class didn’t mean you didn’t learn everything you were supposed to learn.”

          Williams began her North Park coursework at the University Center during the summer term and hopes to complete her bachelor’s degree by December of 2012.  “My desire for a higher wage bracket, through hard work and determination, is a good motivator,” she declares.  She would like to eliminate the second job so as to spend more time with her husband and two young granddaughters.  She adds that she would like her next career to include helping others, the way she herself was helped along the way.

          To learn more about the University Center, visit www.ucenter.org. To learn more about the CLC Alumni Association, visit http://www.clcillinois.edu/depts/alum.asp.