Scholars want to ‘pay forward’ support
Juliet Kennedy was born in Colombia and left an abusive family at an early age, drifting from orphanage to orphanage until she was adopted by an American couple when she was 11 years old. However, she had a hard time adjusting to life in the U.S. and when she didn’t follow rules with her new family, the Department of Human Services removed her and she again faced instability. That changed on her 18th birthday when she decided to enroll at Red Canyon High School.
“Once I turned 18, I changed my old path around and I decided to go back to school and try to make better choices. I knew I couldn’t keep on blaming my past,” she wrote in an application for the Alpine Bank scholarship.
With the support of her adopted family and her new high school, she said she was able to get back on track with school work. And now with a child on the way, she said she needs to go farther in life than high school to provide for her family.
“I didn’t have the money to go to college. If I didn’t get this scholarship, I wouldn’t get to college,” she said.
Kennedy said she hopes she can be a role model for students and let people know it’s never too late to change.