At 25, Michelle Edwards was a single mother living in an apartment with her son and teaching English for a living in Guatemala. She was born and raised in this third largest Central American country in 1974 as the first of three daughters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I graduated high school, I had the opportunity to go to college in Guatemala, but I fell in love,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know that story\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelle found herself alone with her son with no outside help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was rough\u2014very, very rough,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing a single mother in Guatemala is not an easy thing. There is no WIC, no food stamps, no governmental help\u2014there isn\u2019t even child support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luckily, Michelle was able to find a job teaching English\u2014her second language.<\/p>\n
She said in 1988 she had the chance to participate in an exchange student program through her school. Michelle traveled to West Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing I could say was, \u2018Hello, my name is Michelle,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI learned English very quickly. You are forced to learn, especially when you are immersed and nobody speaks your language.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelle took that skill to provide for herself and her son.<\/p>\n
Some time later, Michelle was able to save up some money to take a short vacation to Miami to recharge. While she was there, she befriended someone she met while walking on the beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no attraction right away,\u201d she admitted. \u201cIt was just a quick chat. We exchanged emails and I said I was from Guatemala. He said he was from\u2014where? Rome, Georgia? Where is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelle said that she returned home from her vacation not expecting to ever speak to him again.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe emailed me the first time and I ignored it. He emailed me the second time and I ignored it. And the third time, I answered,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was 10 in the morning and we talked until 5 in the morning the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2009, Michelle married that person she met on the beach. She moved to the U.S. and never left. The two now have two kids together and each brought a child with them into the marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all Edwards,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are all one family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelle was happily married with a full family, but felt she still needed to finish what she had never given herself the opportunity to start so many years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had my opportunity to go to college in Guatemala and I blew it,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to be an example. How can I tell my child you need to go to college, if I don\u2019t do it myself?\u201d<\/p>\n
So Michelle did just that. She applied to GHC and was accepted. She then applied to the nursing program and is nearly completed with her associate. Next, she will apply to the bachelor\u2019s in nursing program at GHC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way to lead is by example. Opportunities don\u2019t come to you. You have to go and look for them,\u201d she said. \u201cI think this is a redo for me\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelle added she is more than happy that she chose GHC to pursue her dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I am where I am supposed to be,\u201d she said. \u201cI love the openness of the people that work here. In most facilities trying to reach the president is impossible. Here you call Dr. Green and he\u2019ll sit with you and have coffee. If you say, \u2018I need help with this,\u2019 they find a way to help you. People at GHC are open. The doors are open. You don\u2019t feel restricted. You can walk into any office almost any time, and not have to make an appointment. There\u2019s always somebody available and willing to help you. GHC has taught me that that the opportunity is there. All you have to do is go out there and find it, and they are here to help you do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At 25, Michelle Edwards was a single mother living in an apartment with her son and teaching English for a living in Guatemala. She was born and raised in this third largest Central American country in 1974 as the first of three daughters. \u201cAfter I graduated high school, I had the opportunity to go to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4797,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4795\/revisions\/4797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}