My Passion for Education

I come from humble beginnings.  My Dad started to work as a telephone lineman and my Mom was a stay at home mom.  They told me stories of how they traveled from one work location to another pulling a small trailer, their living quarters, behind their car.  In those early years, they managed to exist on $7 a week.  My Dad was a self-made man—he worked hard and always gave his best.  He retired as vice-president of the company.  He believed that, for me to be successful, I would need to go to college.  They made the sacrifices for me to be able to go to college and I became the first in my family to receive a college degree.

All that I am, any success I’ve achieved, has come from the education I received.  My husband and I value education in our family.  It has always been our top priority.  When we got married, I taught school and put my husband through medical school.  Those were extremely lean years but we worked together so that he could achieve his educational goal.  Once we had children years later, our goals for them were to also have the best education possible.  They both graduated from Ada High School and were accepted into the colleges of their choice.  And now, they both attend medical school at the University of Oklahoma.  We are living the American Dream and it’s all because of the educational opportunities we had! I want that for every child in Oklahoma! Don’t you?

Sincerely,