Hannah's First Year at Columbia U.
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I am a retired reporter and the mother of one daughter, Hannah.
I've always been proud of her -- when she announced at the age of five that she was going to be a ballerina, I assured her that if that was what she wanted to be, that's what she would become. I had no idea at the time that she would in fact become a scholarshipshp student at the Dance Theater of Harlem, or that she would go on to dance with Alvin Ailey's American Dance Theater.
When her body began to fail her as a dancer, she was despondent. She was so depressed over not being able to dance anymore that I persuaded her to join me on an assignment in Cape May, N.J. She grumpily agreed to do so. In the course of the weekend we were there she befriended the cooks at the resort where we stayed -- so much so that they offered her a job.
She then decided she wanted to be a chef. Within two years she translated the discipline of dance to work in the kitchen and landed a job as the Chef de Cuisine at the Aspen Institute. She went on to hold high-level jobs at two more Aspen restaurants before deciding to go back to school and get a degree in environmental science. Her life in the mountains had made her even more aware of how fragile the ecosystem is.
She joined me in Texas to attend Austin Community College where she finished with a 3.87 GPA. She applied to -- and was accepted at -- several colleges in Texas. But without telling me, she also appied to Columbia University. She didn't tell me she had applied because, she said, she didn't want me to be disappointed if she didn't get in. But she did. And we are now frantically scrambling to get enough money for rent for the spring semester.
She has already been assured of a summer job, and her Columbia counselor has ssured her that it will be easier to find funds for her 2016-2017 year. I am so pround of her decidiing to do a dual degree (environmental engineering and environmental science with a focus on oceanography) that I want to do everything I can to get her to where she wants to be. There are so comparatively few women in science -- and even fewer that seek a third career at the age of 45 -- that I'm hoping those who read this will want to help her achieve yet another life goal.
She will need the money for the start of the Spring semester in February. We almost have enough, just not quite. It would mean the world to her. I know she's going to make me reven prouder than I already am. We will be eternally grateful to all who help her become a Columbia University graduate.
I've always been proud of her -- when she announced at the age of five that she was going to be a ballerina, I assured her that if that was what she wanted to be, that's what she would become. I had no idea at the time that she would in fact become a scholarshipshp student at the Dance Theater of Harlem, or that she would go on to dance with Alvin Ailey's American Dance Theater.
When her body began to fail her as a dancer, she was despondent. She was so depressed over not being able to dance anymore that I persuaded her to join me on an assignment in Cape May, N.J. She grumpily agreed to do so. In the course of the weekend we were there she befriended the cooks at the resort where we stayed -- so much so that they offered her a job.
She then decided she wanted to be a chef. Within two years she translated the discipline of dance to work in the kitchen and landed a job as the Chef de Cuisine at the Aspen Institute. She went on to hold high-level jobs at two more Aspen restaurants before deciding to go back to school and get a degree in environmental science. Her life in the mountains had made her even more aware of how fragile the ecosystem is.
She joined me in Texas to attend Austin Community College where she finished with a 3.87 GPA. She applied to -- and was accepted at -- several colleges in Texas. But without telling me, she also appied to Columbia University. She didn't tell me she had applied because, she said, she didn't want me to be disappointed if she didn't get in. But she did. And we are now frantically scrambling to get enough money for rent for the spring semester.
She has already been assured of a summer job, and her Columbia counselor has ssured her that it will be easier to find funds for her 2016-2017 year. I am so pround of her decidiing to do a dual degree (environmental engineering and environmental science with a focus on oceanography) that I want to do everything I can to get her to where she wants to be. There are so comparatively few women in science -- and even fewer that seek a third career at the age of 45 -- that I'm hoping those who read this will want to help her achieve yet another life goal.
She will need the money for the start of the Spring semester in February. We almost have enough, just not quite. It would mean the world to her. I know she's going to make me reven prouder than I already am. We will be eternally grateful to all who help her become a Columbia University graduate.
Organizer and beneficiary
Ellen Sweets
Organizer
San Francisco, CA
Hannah Sweets
Beneficiary