It is an honor to be nominated for the 2010 Outstanding Senior Award. I began my
career at Kennesaw State University in the summer of 2007 as a Modern Language and Culture,
Spanish major. I was a non-traditional student in my mid-thirties, who decided to make a
career change and return to college. I knew that I wanted to do something that I loved and be
able to help people in my community at the same time. Having a family and working at the
same time as being a fulltime student was more than a struggle, however my education and the
experiences I had at KSU will remain with me forever. Along the way I volunteered on a regular
basis at my son’s school, volunteered at a nursing home teaching a resident basic Spanish,
attended a town hall/community meeting with two professors and my family in the hopes of
helping to bring two groups of residents together, presented at the Latin American Symposium
in Birmingham, Alabama in April of 2009, presented at the KSU Student Scholar presentations
that same month, studied abroad in Ecuador during the summer of 2009, was named on the
Dean’s List and President’s List multiple semesters, was inducted into Sigma Delta Pi, National
Spanish Honor Society, and was the recipient of several scholarships including the Mary Jo
Isakson Scholarship, the Anne Greider Dean Scholarship, the Global Learning Study Abroad
Scholarship, the Arliene M. and Glenn R. Bergert Scholarship, and the Hope Scholarship. I was
determined from the beginning to graduate with honors, however there were many times I did
not think it was possible. With the many challenges (and there were many), plenty of hard
work, enthusiasm, devotion, inspiration, and wonderful examples that all of my professors in
the Foreign Language Department set for me, I was able to fulfill my goal. I graduated Sigma
Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA on December 15, 2009.