Dear Alumnae,
Congratulations from everyone here at the Care Center on all your achievements. Since finishing at the Care Center, many of you have gone on to meet exciting new challenges. Several graduates have transitioned to college this year, while others have found rewarding jobs. We are pleased to see all the ways in which our former students are growing, as thinkers, mothers, and members of a community. While we've been working with a number of former Care Center students, there are many of you with whom we've lost touch. I encourage you to contact us, and let us know what you've been doing. Whether you just graduated this spring, or you left the program years ago, we want to hear from you. Have you started, or even finished, a higher degree? Have you built on skills or talents discovered while you were here? Are you working, or in a training program? Tell us!
Not only does the Care Center staff share in the satisfaction of your accomplishments, but your stories serve as inspiration to current students, as well. There are many young women here in positions much like you were in a few years ago, and they might benefit from hearing about your lives, now. Please think about sharing your experiences, either by writing in to the website or calling and arranging to come in and talk to a class. The ways in which you have been working towards and accomplishing goals are great examples for Care Center students considering their next moves.
Are you still not sure what direction to take now that you've left the Care Center? Why not come in and talk about it with the Transition department? Whether you want help getting started at college, need information about training/education programs, or could use advice on putting together a resume, we can help. It's never too late to put the skills built here to use, and never too late to pursue your dreams.
I especially want to invite current or prospective college students to make sure we have your most recent information, to be sure you get materials for our biannual Scholarship Fund. As many of you know, the Care Center awards two $500 scholarships each semester to currently enrolled college students, to help with the expenses of being in school. Applications for the Fall '06 award were very competitive, but I know there are many of you who missed this opportunity. For more information on the Scholarship Fund, please contact me.
Finally, for anyone who has gone on from here to Holyoke Community College, you should know that we now have a presence on the HCC campus. I have office hours in Donahue 260, where I'm available to help with any issues you may have with being a college student, from registration to tutoring services to child care to transferring.
Together we can help you realize your academic ambitions. We're proud of the good work you have done so far, and want to continue to support you as you become strong, independent women. Stay in touch, and know that you remain in our thoughts long after you leave here.
Yours, Joanna Weinberg, Transition Counselor
Remember, when emailing, to include your current mailing address, email address, and phone number!!Alumnae Interviews
Ashley Scytkowski, 19; Son: Quentin, 3
I'm excited and nervous. Before I came to The Care Center I was at home, doing nothing. I moved in with my boyfriend and he pushed me to go to school. I had always hated school; I went to one year of high school and left. It was too boring for me, and then bad stuff happened and everything went down the drain. Becoming a mom wasn't a decision I made; it happened when I was 16. The reason I went back to school was my son. I needed to make a good life, not like the life I had when I was younger.
Coming to The Care Center was a great experience. I loved it. It was great. Everyone is in the same situation, everyone gets along, it's just a good time. I don't think I would have gotten my GED or gone to college if I hadn't gone to The Care Center. I'd probably be doing nothing.
I basically learned everything at The Care Center: academics, how to get along with people, writing, how to communicate, how to learn. Anita, my teacher, was really outstanding. She's understanding, she's there to help you, she's really supportive of everything.
I am at Holyoke Community College now, and it's going well. I'm not sure of all my plans yet, but I know I want to be an English teacher because one of my teachers really inspired me this year; she's really nice. I want to transfer to a four-year college after this and see where that goes.
The biggest thing a young mom needs to help her through college is support. Family, friends and housing are the main things, and it's important to get from other people. Some people look down on us, some people don't.
You need financial support, too. You need money to support your kid. I don't worry about myself, but Quentin needs stuff. I hate being on welfare, but I don't know what I would do without it.
It's Quentin's birthday coming up. He's going to be three . . . I thought the terrible twos were bad! He has a little attitude on him and I don't like it. He probably gets it from me!
Helena Richard, 22; Daughter: Malaysia, 3
I was on welfare when I got pregnant with my daughter, and I asked about where I could get my GED. I was told that the best place for pregnant women trying to get their GEDs was The Care Center.
I was in foster care from the age of two until I was 18. When I turned 18 I came to Holyoke from Boston to live with my mom and grandmother. Freedom got to be too much for me, and I got pregnant. I knew I had to make a lot of life changes. I hadn't finished high school, so I figured the next best thing was to get my GED. So I started going to The Care Center.
It was amazing, it was great. I took rowing there, which was awesome. It was a team effort, and something to get my mind off my everyday life. I took poetry there, and I still love to write poetry to this day. I could write about whatever I wanted in Tzivia's class, and she was always open. I got a couple of poems in the first "Nautilus."
The counselors helped me with academics and other things from my outside life. At that time, I was having a lot of problems, and The Care Center helped me get into a shelter.
I just loved The Care Center. They gave me a lot of support, and helped me get into college. I was nervous when I got my GED in 2004, like, "what now? I'm not going to make it." I did little things here and there to help myself and my daughter; I took some parenting classes, worked in a shelter, did some community service. When I relaxed I decided it was time for me to do something more to better my life. That's when I started preparing for college.
I started college in fall of 2006 and here I am, a year later! Like anyone else, I was nervous my first semester. It had its ups and downs, but I learned a lot (like not to use floppy disks; they're not so good.)
My second day of college I lost a four-page paper, and got discouraged. That same day I got on the wrong bus, and had an hour-long trip to Westfield instead of Holyoke!
I came back and said, "You know what? I had a bad day. But tomorrow's a new day, and let's try this again."
I was glad for that experience, though. Every road has its bumps, so I just keep going. Now I'm in my third semester and, looking back, I made friends that I probably never would have made, I met professors that are amazing, people I would have never known. I also learned the lesson that you can't win every battle, and not everyone is the same. I had a professor in my first semester who was so unprofessional. If I hadn't met her, I wouldn't know how to deal with people like that. I'm already a strong person, but my experiences here are making me wiser.
I am getting my associate's degree in human services, to help other people. I have an idea that I want to be a counselor for foster children. I want to help them prevent the struggles I went through, as much as I can. You can't win them all. But no matter what I do, I want to wake up every day and say, "Yes. I'm going to help someone today." You might not be able to help people all the time, but one person a day is a good thing.
My personal experience has driven me to the point I am at today, where I just want to go out there through all my struggles and instead of taking on everybodyÑit's not their faultÑI want to give back. I want to help the people who need the most, who I think are foster kids. The way to fail is to give up, so if you want something hard enough, don't give up. Don't give up and eventually, you cannot fail.
The cutest thing that my daughter Malaysia has done recently is ask me when she's going to have a brother or a sister. I said, "Well, when Mommy's done with school."
I left it like that.
Ruth Roman, 22; Daughter: Valerie, 3
I found out I was pregnant when I was 18, living in Boston and working in Burger King. I had dropped out of school after the eighth grade. I moved to a residential program for teens in Holyoke, and started coming to The Care Center. I thought it was going to be just a regular GED school, but as the months passed, I started finding out a lot about myself. That I liked poetry, somewhat. And that I could do a lot of things I thought were limited to other people. I never thought I was going to come to college, it was never in my mind. All of the stuff they made us doÑnot even GED class, but the activities in the afternoons É poetry, self-defense ... I thought, 'wow.' If I keep going to school I can work someplace like this, doing whatever I want.
I found out who I was, and it changed my life completely. I started to think differently, more maturely. The support from everybody made me feel like I could do more. Everybody was like, "You're so smart!" I thought I was the dumbest person in the class, but then I started noticing thatÑpeople weren't dumber, but there were people who knew less. I started thinking that maybe I wasn't as dumb as I thought.
Tania, my teacher told me, "I know if you take the GED test, you're going to pass it. I know you can do it." I thought, "I don't know about that. It's my first time taking it; I'll fail and be here another two years." But then I took it, passed three of the subjects, took it again and passed the rest. Tania was right. I was just underestimating myself, but I did it thanks to everybody's help.
So many people were supporting me and telling me good things about myself, I started to believe them. I believed them more than I believed myself. Hearing it from their mouths, I started to think that maybe I was smart enough to go to college, or smart enough to have a big career. So many people said so many nice things.
When my mom came to graduation and everybody was telling her, "Your daughter's so smart. She's such a good person," my mom was so happy. She was like, "I knew it! I told you! I knew you were smart!!" She was so happy. I'm in Holyoke Community College now. I'm a double major: human services certificate and liberal arts and science major. When I was looking through the course book I realized I could do both, so I ran up to the office and, really quickly, signed up for both.
I'm in my third semester now and hopefully I'll have my human services certificate done by next semester. I have a part-time work-study job in the admissions office. It's been great. I have an interview for a volunteer job with the MSPCC this week, and I'm really looking forward to that.
The Care Center made me realize what I really wanted to do, not just work in Burger King or McDonald's for the rest of my life. When I finish up at HCC, I'm going either to Mount Holyoke or Elms College. Hopefully, too, by the time I'm done with school I'll have enough experience volunteering for MSPCC that I can get a job there. Or maybe the admissions office will offer me a contract, to get paid like a regular employee instead of work-study. My goal in life is to have a good, full-time job when I'm finished with school.
The cutest thing Valerie does these days is, when I'm sleeping, I can feel her touching my face. I wake up a little bit and she gives me a kiss, and we both go back to sleep. That's really nice, getting woken up for a kiss. My Valerie!