For Immediate Release - June 6, 2005
(DALLAS)
– Turning 12 and facing the challenges of being a teenager is a test
for most young people, but for Sara Hays, that challenge included facing
diabetes, learning a new lifestyle, failing and recuperating. Bouts
with poor health, depression and drug addiction threatened to implode
her future, but Sara fought back and enrolled at Eastfield College. Her
dream now is to build a career that helps others overcome those same
obstacles.
To walk a mile in Julius Ejiofor’s shoes meant taking
a 10-mile trek on foot each day to class in Cameroon, Africa. Obtaining
an education in an underdeveloped country is difficult at the high
school level. When Julius decided that his life’s dream was to become a
physician, he knew that he had to leave his homeland and move to the
United States to earn his college degrees. The move was tough, money was
tight and the support – both financial and emotional – that he received
from home ended abruptly following his father’s death last year. And
yet the El Centro College student continues to thrive, succeed and help
others reach for their dreams, too.
That’s why Sara Hays and
Julius Ejiofor are recipients of the 2005 Erin Tierney Kramp
Encouragement Scholarship Award, which will be presented during a
special program in June. Dallas County Community Colleges and the Erin
Tierney Kramp Encouragement Foundation will honor Hays and Ejiofor
during a 6 p.m. awards reception on Thursday, June 9, at a local Dallas
restaurant, which the Kramp foundation’s board of directors will host.
The
scholarship will help Hays and Ejiofor reach for their dreams with
financial support provided by the Erin Tierney Kramp Encouragement
scholarship award. Each student will receive a $700-per-semester
scholarship (up to a maximum of $2,800 per recipient). Hays, who is
pursuing studies in nursing, plans to become a nurse and to counsel
pre-teen and teenage girls who have diabetes, sharing her personal
experiences with them. Ejiofor, also enrolled in nursing, will build on
that knowledge, pursue a bachelor’s degree in biology from a four-year
institution and eventually earn his medical degree.
The
scholarship recipients’ courage and perseverance in the face of
adversity are traits exhibited by the person for whom the award is
named. Erin Tierney Kramp, who fought breast cancer from 1994 to 1998
(when she lost that battle), created a videotaped legacy on “life
lessons” for her young daughter that would convey Erin’s views and
advice to Peyton as the young girl grew up, following her mother’s
death. Erin touched many lives and inspired countless strangers when she
co-authored "Living with the End in Mind" (with her husband and a
family friend) and through appearances on programs like "20/20" and the
"Oprah Winfrey Show." Her legacy lives on through the Kramp Foundation,
the DCCC scholarship program and the lives of all recipients.
“The
Erin Tierney Kramp program awards scholarships to students based on
their courage and perseverance in the face of adversity,” said Betheny
Reid, executive director of the DCCC Foundation. “We see these qualities
in Sara and Julius, who bravely survived their own challenges and who
plan to help others by going to college and preparing for careers that
will serve others. Their stories exemplify what our past recipients have
demonstrated repeatedly through Erin’s legacy: We should celebrate
life’s goodness, regardless of adversity. Sara and Julius truly deserve
this honor.”
In her essay for the Kramp competition, Hays
recalled the trials and despair of dealing with diabetes, experiencing
related depression – “[m]y body was letting me down” – and her journey
toward drug addiction as a result of those physical and mental
complications. She adds, “Unconsciously, when I was 13, I began to
self-medicate my physical and emotional pain … so that I would not have
to hurt so much. The addictions began to take control, and I felt
powerless to stop them.” By age 19, Hays had landed in jail and faced
two years of probation; fortunately, rehabilitation was part of her
probation, and she learned more about herself and the emotions she had
buried for years.
Today, Sara has set some goals and is
enrolled at Eastfield College to study nursing so that she can become a
certified diabetic educator and counselor. “I would like to share my
experiences with other diabetics, help guide them through the hard
times, answer questions and make the challenges that come with diabetes
easier to understand and not so impossible to overcome.” The EFC student
is president of the college’s Communications Club; she also played
goalie for the school’s first women’s soccer team and has earned a 3.6
grade point average. She adds, “I’ve been clean and sober for two years,
and I am still going strong. I have found happiness in all that I do.”
Ejiofor,
who grew up in Ndu Town in North West Province, Cameroon, says he is
“the first person in my family to get this far in college.” He adds, “I
love my home, but I had to leave to achieve my goals.” Julius, who says
that his younger brother now is more focused on his education because he
has seen his older sibling succeed, also has helped others in Cameroon –
and now at El Centro College – through tutoring. “In high school, I
tutored physics and mathematics, at no charge, during (and sometimes
after) school because I wanted them to succeed as well. I believe
sharing my love of education helped many of them stay in school.”
Before
he traveled the thousands of miles that brought him to Dallas, Julius
also served as a class proctor and was named the best student in
chemistry, physics and mathematics, as well as the best all-around
student in academics. He graduated as the top student in his high school
and in the entire city of Ndu Town. At El Centro, Julius has a 4.0 GPA,
is a member of the two-year college academic honorary Phi Theta Kappa,
is listed on the president’s honor roll and is a tutor in the Learning
Center, where he continues to help others with mathematics. He also has
volunteered in the community at Brentwood Place II nursing home and at
the Veterans Hospital in Dallas.
“At my school in Cameroon, I
studied all of the sciences that were taught, but because of the
economic situation in my country, the high school did not have enough
resources to have a science lab. As a result, we learned all of the
(science) theory without actually doing the experiments and
applications. This method was very challenging because it was difficult
to visualize complicated science concepts. But I was still fascinated in
science, in spite of those obstacles,” Ejiofor explains.
For more information, contact Kathye Hammontree, director of administration for the DCCC Foundation, at 214-860-2455.
Press contacts:
Kathye Hammontree, DCCC Foundation, 214-860-2455
or
Ann Hatch, DCCC Marketing/Media Relations, 214-860-2478