Soroptimist International of Capitola-by-the-Sea has selected three local women as winners of the 2020 Live Your Dream Awards. At a ceremony March 24, each will be presented with a $2,000 cash award.
Lorena Miller
Celia Montesina
The winners are Lorena Miller of Capitola, Celia Montesina of Santa Cruz and the name of the third winner is being withheld for her safety.
The Live Your Dream awards are given to women who are enrolled in or have been accepted into a bachelor’s or technical training program, are the heads of their households with demonstrated financial need.
Miller, a single mother of two children, is a full-time student with the goal of becoming a surgical nurse. She grew up with parents addicted to drugs and alcohol and suffered mental, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of a family member.
After escaping those circumstances, she began her pre-nursing classes. She has a learning disability, requiring tutoring and studying outside the classroom including on weekends and during the summer.
Similarly, Montesina is a single parent raising two children, one of whom has a learning disability. A first-generation immigrant and college student, she also escaped domestic violence.
“Studying offered me a newfound comfort, I was able to escape into the realm of books and knowledge,” she wrote in her Live Your Dream essay. “Whenever I learned something new, it made me feel competent, capable and most importantly—powerful.”
Currently enrolled in a radiologic technology program at Cabrillo College, she hopes to become a licensed radiologic technologist. She also wants to be an educator as well as a beacon of hope, and an example to her children, single parents and abuse survivors.
The anonymous winner is the mother who is pursuing a degree in social work and has been able to maintain a 4.0 gradepoint average while raising her two children, going to school full-time and working part-time.
“I want to work with women and mothers and help them to overcome difficulties and to enjoy their precious life,” she said in her Live Your Dream essay.
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Soroptimist International of Capitola-by-the-Sea is a volunteer organization that provides women and girls with access to the education and training needed to achieve economic empowerment. For information see www.facebook.com/sicapitola, email us at info@best4women.org or visit our website at www.best4women.org.
