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Local woman headed for academic success
By SALLIE BARR PALMER
Article published on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007 |
LARGO – Overcoming challenges often makes people more successful and changes their lives. Karen Brown can attest to this fact.
“I don’t procrastinate. I use every spare minute for studying and homework,” said Brown, seated at her kitchen table with her schoolwork spread out in front of her.
Brown's hard work has paid off – she was recently awarded a $10,000 scholarship to cover a year’s tuition at the University of Phoenix-West Florida, where she enrolled as a student in November.
But Brown is not your typical college student. She is a 50-year-old single mother, working at a full-time job while simultaneously pursuing her degree.
“I take every day as it is handed to me,” she went on to say, and those days have handed her some tough times. She and her son Chad, now 15, have been on their own since he was 3 months old, and at the time he was born, she had already undergone surgery for colon cancer.
“Cancer made me a survivor,” she said.
Survival has meant living in a travel trailer while working in a convenience store. Landing a job with a mortgage company gave her the opportunity to rent an apartment – first an efficiency, then a one-bedroom, and later a two-bedroom.
“In 1995, thanks to the Sold On Largo program, I was able to buy a house. I wanted a stable environment for my son. Everything I do is for him – he gives me a purpose.”
A colleague at work who was doing an online course guided Brown toward the local University of Phoenix program. In addition to offering more opportunity for career advancement, she found her studies are giving her the chance to be a role model for Chad.
Brown would like to see more single-parent families go the route she has taken and hopes her story will inspire others to go back to school.
“It’s not easy,” she admits. “It takes a lot of time and energy. But it’s going to get easier and it’s all worth it.”
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Article published on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007
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