At 29 years old, Cara Nickels of Keller, Texas, enjoyed the unique experience of being a teacher* and a student at the same time. Cara was employed at Degan Elementary School in Lewisville, Texas, when she decided to pursue her Master of Arts in Special Education. Because she worked at a No Excuses University (NEU) school within the Lewisville Independent School District, Cara was able to apply for the NEU Teacher Scholarship in January 2017.
The year 2008 was a pivotal one for Jenna Jackson. She graduated from a traditional four-year college right after high school with a bachelor’s degree in business, specializing in marketing management. But it also was the beginning of the financial crisis. Like so many of her peers, she entered the job market at the start of the Great Recession with student loan debt and mounting concerns for her future.
When Nicole Chubb first enrolled at another college on a scholarship in 1998, she admits she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. It was a story she would stick with for two decades.
After a year in college, she dropped out and started working in the hotel industry. Thirteen years and a divorce later, the single mother realized it was time to make some serious life changes for herself and her young son.
“I needed to make sure I would be around for him as long as he needed me, and I wanted to show him that being healthy was important,” she explains.