 My name is Amanda Coughlin. I grew up in Hoka, Minnesota in a working-class family. I didn't do very well in high school. I was put in some special education classes for ADD. At 17 years old I decided that I was going to drop out of high school altogether and I moved five hours away from my family for about a year. When I moved back I didn't really care to finish my high school education at that point but I knew that that was something that I would need to and it was kind of embarrassing if people would ask me where I graduated high school from. I didn't want to say that I dropped out. At that time I was working for fast food places mostly. I worked for quite a few different fast food restaurants and I really wasn't living up to my full potential. I knew it then but I didn't really know what else I could do without a high school diploma. When I was around 20 years old I had a roommate who was attending Western Technical College for Childhood Education and she really encouraged me to go back to school to finish my HSCD which is the High School of Covalency Diploma. So I did that. I came to Western and with the help of many advisors, instructors and other students that I went to school with I ended up completing my high school equivalency diploma and that gave me a huge sense of pride. When I was 29 years old I gave birth to a beautiful little girl named Zoe and during that time I did a lot of reflection on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Before that I had been working a third shift job and that wasn't really going to fit for what I needed with my daughter and so I really started to think about going back to school. My advisor in the past had always been Max Bang and he was always someone who really tried hard to find out what was going to work for me and something that would stick. Through the counseling and advising and consultation with instructors and myself we've been able to help students meet those challenges and obstacles and so that's one thing that I do pride in terms of what Western can offer is the counseling services that we have here. One of the things that I always really enjoyed doing was helping friends and family working with their computers, smart phones, things of that nature and so I thought that pursuing a career in computer support would be a very good move for me. Coming back to school was a challenge financially. I didn't really know how I was going to afford to pay for my education or my childcare expenses for my daughter. One of the resources that helped me immensely came from the financial aid department and the scholarships that I received. A convenient part about going to Western is there is a child care center right next door. I was able to visit her right across the street. When I first enrolled at Western Technical College I enrolled in the one-year computer support technician program because I really wanted to make sure that it was the right fit for me and after going through my first term I absolutely fell in love with it and one of my instructors Cindy Prindle really encouraged me to step into the two-year degree associate's program for computer support specialist program and I haven't looked back since I absolutely love it. The one thing that's a little bit unusual about the computer support specialist program here at Western and I think it would be all the IT programs at any of the Wisconsin Technical Schools is that seeing females in the position it's non-traditional for females. So in many of the classes you may have one or two women in the class so the women that really do make it they work very hard and they're breaking the barriers and I think it just really makes them stronger and better people in the workforce. Cindy Prindle her energy in the classroom is hard to compare. She absolutely makes you feel welcome and makes you feel like you can do anything. This past fall I applied for a job and one of the things that really stood out to them was the fact that I was going to school for IT and being a woman in male dominated field it wasn't as common for them to see that and many of the skills that I had already learned really helped to get the position that I wanted and I have already been given the opportunity for advancement. Before going to school I really didn't know what kind of job that I could get outside of working as a server or a bartender or in the service industry in general and now I feel like I can do anything. When I came to Western I really wanted to make a better future not just for myself but for my daughter. I wanted her to see more than just a high school dropout and I wanted to do something more I wanted her to be proud of me I wanted to be proud of myself I am proud of myself and the accomplishments that I've made welcoming to Western I've done things now that I never dreamed that I would do becoming student ambassador was one of those things and I am so proud of it my family and my friends are incredibly supportive and incredibly proud of me and that feels good.