Due to the Lois & Dale Schol­ar­ship, I was able to engage in mul­ti­ple study abroad expe­ri­ences that were life chang­ing. I spent nine weeks in Cos­ta Rica study­ing Span­ish, com­plet­ed an intern­ship in Ecuador for a sum­mer, and stud­ied a semes­ter in Cac­eres, Spain. All these oppor­tu­ni­ties pro­vid­ed far more than just lan­guage skills. They opened my eyes to dif­fer­ent cul­tures, new per­spec­tives, and oppor­tu­ni­ties I nev­er could have imag­ined. My study abroad expe­ri­ences had giv­en me a taste of adven­ture, and I longed for an oppor­tu­ni­ty to ful­ly immerse myself in Span­ish-speak­ing environments. 

In Feb­ru­ary 2021, I made the deci­sion to move to Puer­to Rico, and six months lat­er, I found myself liv­ing on an island. I often reflect on Lois and Dale, rec­og­niz­ing that with­out their ded­i­ca­tion, gen­eros­i­ty, and care for oth­ers, the life I’m liv­ing today sim­ply wouldn’t have been pos­si­ble. The abil­i­ty to grad­u­ate with­out stu­dent debt has giv­en me the free­dom to take risks and build a life I tru­ly love. At 17, I didn’t ful­ly under­stand what it meant to be debt-free, but at 26, I now real­ize that finan­cial free­dom has been the foun­da­tion for so many of my opportunities.

Cur­rent­ly, I work as a trav­el­ing new­born care spe­cial­ist, sup­port­ing fam­i­lies with infant care, edu­ca­tion, and ear­ly devel­op­men­tal train­ing dur­ing the first 3 – 6 months of a baby’s life. I deeply val­ue this work and am grate­ful to be able to serve fam­i­lies in both Eng­lish and Spanish.

I extend my heart­felt grat­i­tude to the Bright Foun­da­tion. Receiv­ing this schol­ar­ship changed my life in ways I nev­er could have imag­ined. Lois had already passed when I grad­u­at­ed, and I regret not hav­ing had the chance to meet her. I often think about the per­son she must have been, the part­ner­ship she and Dale shared, and the pro­found impact they con­tin­ue to have. My hope is to hon­or their lega­cy by car­ry­ing for­ward their kind­ness, gen­eros­i­ty, and ded­i­ca­tion to others.