She grew up near Kokomo, Indiana in a small Amish community. At a young age she knew she wanted to go to college because she saw how her dad struggled to make ends met and feeding a family of six on a sixty acre farm wasn’t an easy task. Her first obstacle was the fact she knew no English when she started school. This was her fault, her grandmother knew no English, and therefore she felt this wasn’t a necessity. She soon realized her mistake and two weeks into the school year she knew how to speak English. German is the language spoken in the Amish homes as well as all the church services. She never lost her ambition of some day graduating from college. When she reached her late teens she was finally on her way to reaching her dream. She moved to Arizona where she was introduced to a Jewish family and in exchange for room and board she worked as a maid. For school money she baby sat in the evening and on the weekends. However, when she wanted to start college she encountered another problem. She had no high school diploma. The admissions director told her no diploma no college. There is a way to beat this situation; she just had to think outside the box. Her plan worked and five years later she graduated with honors from Arizona State University. Her next goal was to obtain an MLS and work in the Library of Congress. Her situation is unique because no one has been able to explain how you can earn a BA degree without a high school diploma. This is her first book and she was encouraged by her former One Stop counselor. She rejected her religion, but this foundation has sustained her life.
