Heather thought she would never go back to school.
“In 2012, I went to a community college for about a year, and that was a really great experience, but I had a lot to work out, and I was just overwhelmed,” she said. “So I stopped going to school, and that’s when I accepted the fact that I went, it was a great experience, but it wasn’t for me. Moving on.”
Her life was full, with a husband, six children between the two of them, and her recovery from alcoholism.
“I’m a recovering alcoholic,” Heather shared. “Over the course of a few years and doing the step work and cleaning out the wreckage, it really allowed God to come in and start healing.”
She began going to church at New Day Church of the Nazarene, and started feeling the Holy Spirit draw her to SNU.
Heather's enthusiasm for her studies and her future is contagious.
“It was like God put the holy spirit in my life and said, ‘Let’s create in Heather a new person,’” she said.
Now, Heather is taking accelerated general education courses so she can make fast progress toward a ministerial program that will show her how to help others going through similar struggles.
“Because of my history, I would like to be an integral part of bringing women to a point in their life where they can experience what I’ve been able to experience,” she said.
Her new drive and dedication toward her end goal has allowed her to thrive in her classes, despite having suffered from a stroke, as well as having a full schedule with church on Wednesdays and Sundays, family time, building a new house with her husband, and a full-time job. “I love going into a class not knowing anything,” she said.
For those who have ever questions whether they’re cut out for higher education, Heather shows just how possible it is.
