Rebecca Belcher
Gateway Community & Technical College
Background:
Rebecca Belcher is a single mother of two daughters and also has one granddaughter. She started Gateway Community and Technical College in 2002 as a dislocated worker, and since starting to college, she has carried twenty hours per semester as well as eight hours during the summers and she graduates this May (2004) with a cumulative 3.973 GPA.
She was introduced to the Ready-to-Work (RTW) program through the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program at her college. When her FWS funds were depleted, she was referred to the Ready-to-Work Program. She has been an active participant in RTW and all of its events ever since. She has received the Kentucky Colonels' Scholarship, is on the President's and Dean's list, is in the National Technical Honor Society, and is on the KCTCS All America Academic Achievement Team.
These are Rebecca's own words:
"I feel my most significant endeavor while attending Gateway Community & Technical College has been working with the "Ready to Work" program. Since January 2003 I have worked with Betty Barrett, who is coordinator of the program. The program benefits single students, male or female, who are low income, single and raising children on their own.
"Ready to Work" helps students attend college by providing a work-study opportunity that can assist them in their college expenses. Betty, as coordinator, helps them to get a job, not only for additional income but to build their confidence and help them gain work experience. Betty also provides counseling to the students who are not sure what field they want to enter into and for those who are struggling with raising children and attending school as well as other support services and referrals to other community organizations for assistance.
While working for Betty she has asked me to help organize, set-up and/or speak at the "Ready to Work" sponsored functions - Children's Inc, Urban Learning Center meeting, and "Christmas Like Charity Should Begin at Home" fund drive. She has recommended me to Nancy Penick, Gear Up Program Director; Judy Schilling, Tech Prep Program Coordinator, and also to help at various other campus-based events, including the Ground Breaking Ceremony and the Presidential Inauguration. She feels with my academic achievements, intellect, and personal struggles being a single parent, working two jobs, and attending college, I could encourage potential and current students not to give up on their dreams/goals. Speaking at these events has not only encouraged the students but also has encouraged me not to give up. It has been a struggle, but I am going to make it. I feel the best rewards have been when current students see me in class, the lunchroom, or in the halls and tell me I have helped give them gain insight into their future.
Through all the events at which I have helped, I feel the "Christmas Like Charity Should Begin at Home" fund drive this past Christmas has impacted my life the most.
This drive takes place each Christmas to benefit students, who are financially challenged, and their children. Students who need help put their name on a wish list along with a child's favorite toy, clothes sizes or other needs. Volunteers from the faculty and staff at Gateway Community & Technical College each pick a family to help out by donating money and/or gifts. As a volunteer I helped to shop, to wrap, to organize, and to distribute these gifts. A smile from the children or a tear in the parent's eyes was definitely payment enough.
I feel the "Ready to Work" sponsored functions benefit the college by providing opportunities for the RTW Coordinator to speak one-on-one to students and by encouraging them to enroll at Gateway Community & Technical College; the community, by helping financially-challenged students to make the transition from being dependent on state agencies to being dependent on themselves; and also benefits society, by having educated students to enter the workforce."
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