Live Your Dream Awards Stories: Ashley

Ashley is a 2018 Live Your Dream Awards Recipient
Ashley was selected by volunteer judges to receive a First Level $1,000 and Second Level $3,000 Live Your Dream Award to help her reach her education goals. She is one of hundreds of remarkable women worldwide who receive a money award each year through this renowned Soroptimist program. Ashley has agreed to let us share her extraordinary story.

Ashley’s life was filled with challenges from very early childhood. At age two, Ashley and her sister entered the child welfare system after her mother was in a serious car accident. After suffering five years of physical and emotional abuse in foster homes, Ashley and her little sister moved in with her father and his new wife. They also abused and mistreated the girls.

Continuing to bounce from home to home led to drugs, alcohol, trouble in school, and a few stays at juvenile detention centers. After a domestic violence assault ended the life of a friend, Ashley knew something needed to change. Shortly after, she became a mother, which further inspired her dream of becoming a nurse.

I want to live and be happy and provide a better childhood for my girls than I had growing up. I refuse to let what happened to me bring me down.

Now, Ashley works as a caregiver for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The Live Your Dream Awards are helping her finish her Licensed Vocational Nursing program and pursue her ultimate career goal of obtaining her Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

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