President Nancy McCabe

If you were at the September Showcase meeting, you know that we heard an emotional presentation of our scholarships for this school year. I asked how many of us were first-generation college graduates in our families, and about half of those present raised our hands. As I am one of these first in the family graduates, so it seems like a good time to share my story.

Neither of my parents graduated from high school. My father was orphaned at age 10, and he and his five siblings went to an orphanage. The boys were sent to farms to work, so his education ended with the fourth grade. My mother was one of 11 children of a tenant farmer who died leaving half of the children still underage. Mother dropped out in the eleventh grade to help her family.

My mother valued education and basically expected me to attend college. She found a scholarship that paid my tuition, which went from the princely sum of $90/quarter to $105 by my senior year. I worked to pay for my books and such. I don’t believe that I would have undertaken college without her support and expectations. I know that all of us who are first generation have someone who enabled us to see ourselves as going further than our predecessors. Donating to our scholarship fund would be a way of paying forward their gift to us. We can enable and encourage other women to pursue their dreams by showing that we believe in them. It is money well spent.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

— Nelson Mandela