Echo staff report<\/p>\n
The Overcoming Adversity Keeping Strong Event is an annual fundraising and scholarship program that pays tribute to students who have overcome tremendous odds to become personally and academically successful.
\nHere are biographies provided by the RCTC Foundation.<\/p>\n
Beth Leeper
\nThe words fighter and survivor probably have more meaning to Beth Leeper than they do to others her age. She has a disease called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a form of cancer.
\nFor more than two years leukemia ruled her life. Going through chemo treatment at 12 meant her middle school years were hard. She missed a lot of school and people saw her as different.
\nWithout the team of doctors and her support system, Beth says she wouldn\u2019t be preparing for high school graduation now. Her caretaker team has a 95 percent cure rate and she is grateful for their help.
\nBeth is well acquainted with loss, losing her stepmother due to a brain tumor, her father due to a broken heart, her stepfather due to heart problems, and her elderly grandmother. She almost lost her own life to cancer on four occasions. Coming from that, she has decided the only thing she can do is be positive. Beth says you will never see me without a smile.
\nHer goal is to become a child-life specialist and work with children and their families who are in hospitals dealing with uncontrollable situations.
\nBeth says that she will overcome cancer and help others to do the same. According to her, Cancer will not win.<\/p>\n
Amber Guillen
\nA diagnosis of a parent\u2019s serious mental illness years ago is connected to a number of hardships for Amber Guillen and her family.
\nShe has faced obstacles head-on, learning and growing all the while. In fact, her high school counselor, Courtney Dahlby, lists brilliant and determined among Amber\u2019s many qualities.
\nOver the years, Amber has learned important skills through her parent\u2019s illness. Among them, she points to problem-solving and, more specifically, to her ability to deal with difficult people with patience and empathy, noting that disrespect is never the answer.
\nIn fact, since she was 8, Amber and her family members have dealt with countless rash choices, including abrupt moves, once from Minnesota to Georgia in a matter of days. Another recurring challenge has to do with family income and persevering through difficult financial times. Amber is employed, working to help pay for both necessities and wants.
\nOn top of it all, she seeks challenging courses in high school and participates in extracurricular activities, including choir and track and field. Notably, Dahlby appreciates Amber\u2019s exceptionally humble presence over many years and now sees her as an ideal college candidate.<\/p>\n
Carroll Harrod
\nCarroll was the third born child of seven. His father worked two full-time jobs to support his family, but it wasn\u2019t enough.
\nThey moved from one low-income neighborhood to another, watching their father rise early every morning and come home late every night. On weekends, he had a fiery temper. He was physically abusive to all of them, but years later, his siblings told him he bore the brunt.
\nWhen he was 11, his parents divorced, and, he never saw his father again. His mother went from one dead-end job to the next. At 16 he got his driver\u2019s license, withdrew from high school, and got a GED. Carroll took his younger siblings to and from school, did laundry, cleaned the house, bought groceries and prepared meals.
\nAfter the military, Carroll felt regret every time he saw GED listed at the bottom of his resume and wanted to replace it with an associate\u2019s degree; he has chosen nursing as his field of study.
\nCarroll has broken the cycle of abuse. He loves and cherishes his wife and two daughters, and he is a mentor to others.
\nMany of us grew up in broken homes, and yet we strive to break the cycle and help others to do the same. I am honored to be among those who will, Harrod said.<\/p>\n
Andrea Hart
\nAndrea Hart acknowledges that her many experiences have shaped her into the person she is today; however, the nature and the number of the obstacles she has faced truly distinguish her.
\nFor instance, her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Andrea was finishing her middle-school years. As her mother\u2019s condition has progressively worsened, Andrea\u2019s responsibilities have increased. Now, she tends to household chores, shops for necessities, helps her youngest brother with homework, and provides in-home care daily for her mother.
\nHer high school counselor, Dr. Casie Nauman, highlights Andrea\u2019s work ethic and helpfulness, writing that she is not one that grows tired of helping, that, in fact, she assists because she wants to. Nauman adds that Andrea works every day at overcoming adversities while maintaining a positive outlook and a high standard of success.
\nIn all, Andrea has developed an awareness of the need to use her time and resources wisely, balancing needs and wants. Given these details, it should come as no surprise to learn that her high school counselor calls her an inspiration.
\nDiana Sanchez<\/p>\n
In 2004, at the age of 4, Diana crossed the border from Mexico to the United States with two aunts and an uncle \u00f1 only one of them over the age of 18.
\nThey were in search of a better life in a completely new place, where they didn\u2019t speak the language or know what would come next. On top of this, Diana\u2019s mother was pregnant at the time and had to stay back in Mexico, unable to join with the family until the following year. When Diana thinks back on this time, she understands the sacrifice and struggle that it took for her family to get her here, and she knows they would do it all again.
\nAt 14, Diana was diagnosed with clinical depression, which she took as an opportunity to understand herself better and begin coping with some things she\u2019d been struggling with for years.<\/p>\n
There were times it felt like everything was being ripped apart, especially her family. Her grandparents had their visas taken away and were sent back to Mexico in 2017. Later that year, her uncle who had always been there for her, had his visa stripped as well
\nThrough the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Diana has been able to work, go to school, and get on the path to citizenship. This makes her a Dreamer, something she\u2019s proud of, and she wants to be an example for the other children in her family.<\/p>\n
Rasha Al salehy
\nPerseverance is a buzz word that gets thrown around quite a bit, but for Rasha Al salehy it\u2019s simply a way of life.
\nThrough war and relocation, she has continued to put one foot in front of the other, always moving forward. After ISIS invaded Iraq, Rasha and her family had to leave friends, family and careers behind for their own safety. They emigrated from Iraq to Rochester and had to start again from zero. But that didn\u2019t deter Rasha, who looked at the Mayo Clinic and said, One day I will work there.
\nShe has been doing just that for two years and is completing her first year at RCTC.
\nAs a mother of four, Rasha continues to persevere. Every day she wakes up early to give her daughter her medications, make breakfast for the family, and even cook that night\u2019s meal because there won\u2019t be any other time in the day. If you see her after she gets home at 11 p.m., she\u2019ll be studying.
\nWith a goal of completing the Dental Assistant program at RCTC and eventually working in the Mayo Clinic\u2019s Department of Dental Specialties, Rasha has been undeterred. Along the way she has picked up a certificate as a phlebotomy technician and earned a National Healthcare Associate certificate.
\nRasha credits her husband\u2019s support as one of the things that help her overcome challenges. She says she would not be where she is today without his support and his consistent encouragement to pursue and reach her goals. He also takes care of their children and tends to family responsibilities so she can attend school and work the night shift.
\nRasha has learned that there is no success without sacrifice and, in her case, there is no doubt that she will be successful at anything she sets her mind to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Echo staff report The Overcoming Adversity Keeping Strong Event is an annual fundraising and scholarship program that pays tribute to students who have overcome tremendous odds to become personally and academically successful. Here are biographies provided by the RCTC Foundation. Beth Leeper The words fighter and survivor probably have more meaning to Beth Leeper than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}