Adair's essay is very compelling because it focus on many themes that women go through while enduring poverty. The themes are coming to America for a better life, single mothers, and fighting for education in order to empower themselves and to endorse a better future for their loved ones. My guess in why we are assigned to read this journal article is because we learned about social witness issues and our next project is to take that social witness issue and do a project about it. This women's social witness essay is presented in the form of a journal article that features many of her own experiences as well as other women's experiences.
Her story begins by addressing the social issue of poverty and being a single mother. The author paints a picture of herself in a shelter with multiple bruises, a missing tooth and a busted lip. She suffers from domestic violence and runs away with her 8th month baby. At this time she goes through tremendous difficulty such as no support, no money for medical care, and not enough food. It takes about 2 weeks for to reopen her case and process her request for assistance and she could not apply for food stamps because she did not have a rent reciet in her own name and the medical care coverage was limited to only fixing her front tooth. She had other injuries in her mouth that could not be fixed. She decides that in order to make it through this world and to support her child she needed to go through college. She studied, attended classes, worked, and cared for her daughter. She managed to get aid from the AFDC or the Aid To Families with Dependent Children and received grants, food stamps, and Medicare. She even went as far as donating her plasma at blood banks for some extra cash to pay for classes and books.
She as well as many others had gone through this obstacle of taking care of a child and going to college. Take for example, Lyne Woolsey, Gita Rajan, and Shannon Standfeild. Lyne Woosley was a woman who was newly divorced and forced to go to welfare. She had two children to take care of and managed to go back to school just like Adair. She was also successful in opening a new business. She ran office and became a congress women in 1992. Dr. Gita has the same story. She was also a divorced women whom was thrown into poverty. She went to college while working and lived off of school loans. She eventually earned her PH.D and is an award winning teacher whom also won her doctor degree in neuroengineering. Shannon another poor single woman experienced success as well. The problem with her was that she was too independent on her husband. He eventually abandoned her and abused her and left her with two young babies. She was among the worst poverty stricken single mothers with no job experience, little education, and no savings, and she barley covered enough money to pay for rent that left nothing for her babie's diapers, utilities, and transportation.
Because of her decision to go back to college she managed to save herself and children. She had maintained valuable success in college with a A grade average her senior year.
The theme that these women share all leads to one main goal. Going back to college so that their kids can live a better life in the future as well as themselves. These women were so successful despite the struggles that they came across. I feel like if these women can be successful in school with these kinds of struggles than many people can look to them for inspiration and overcome the struggle they may face as well. What makes these women different from the rich students of today was that they really wanted to improve their life. They did not spend their time partying or goofing off and skipping class. These women were too busy to socialize focused on school every minute they could because their time was short due to the pressure at work and taking care of their children. These women showed that they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. They were already at the bottom of the pit and so the only thing that they could do was work hard and climb to the top. As Shannon puts it, she was able to " take her children and climb the stone was that was built by helplessness and hopelessness. Their story makes me feel blessed to have the privilege to further my education in school without any pressures. Thanks to my parents I have the opportunity just as these children of the women who struggled to go to school, Sharron, Lynn, Gita, and Adair, to be able to receive support for college. Reading this article makes me want to try harder in school. I should be getting good grades just as these women because they had so much more obstacles to overcome than I do and if they can do it, I can too.
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