“With the scholarships that I’ve received, I plow through difficulties that life throws my way. “
Brittany O’s positive personality leads those who meet her to believe that her story is similar to those of most other students. While it does have a happy ending, the beginning is one only a special student could overcome.
From an early age, Brittany was a parent caring for her younger siblings because her mother’s drug use made her unfit to do so. She cooked, helped with their homework, took them to school … she was a child-mom. A few short years later – when her mother was incarcerated – she was a teen living on her own. Through all of this, Brittany clung to the one firmly-grounded pillar of her chaotic young life: education.
“I just stuck it out, even when it got really hard, and there was no one there to push me to even get up in the morning. With the help of the ACE program I pushed myself to graduate high school and now with the scholarships that I have received from the foundation, I continue to plow through any of the difficulties that life throws my way.”
Brittany smiles as she recalls how happy she was when she received the Women’s Philanthropy Circle scholarship. “I read the qualifications and I instantly knew I was a good fit. I was ecstatic when I learned that I had received it. I’ll receive my Associates degree this spring at MCC and continue on at PC where I’ll complete the Sign-Language Interpreter program. It’s a two year program and I have my heart set on being an interpreter while continuing to study and eventually receive a graduate degree.”