Rhodenizer was one of Literacy Nova Scotia’s Adult Learners’ Week contest winners for 2015. Her essay was the winning submission in the Community-based Levels I & II Category. She read her essay to the audience at the Adult Learners’ Week Celebration in Halifax last Friday.
Rhodenizer was a 19-year-old mother of two children, both under the age of three, when she decided to change her life. She and her fiancé were finding it difficult to make ends meet and she knew that it was time to change her life around. She says she often pondered the thought of going back to school, and after confiding in a friend about her dream to return to her studies she made the next move.
In 2013Rhodenizer enrolled in the Pictou County Continuous Learning Association (PiCCoLA), a non-profit based organization that provides adults with equal opportunity to education.
“I’m grateful for PiCCoLA,” says Rhodenizer.
Through the programs and activities PiCCoLA offers, Rhodenizer says she has developed in ways that she did not know were possible.
Rhodenizer future goals are to work in the field of health care. She realized her passion for taking care of others when her mother required care after undergoing a surgery and having some complications. This was reinforced when her daughter burned her hand on a woodstove, and Rhodenizer had to properly clean and dress the wound.
Through PiCCoLA, Rhodenizer is determined to reach her goal and set a positive example for her family, showing them that anything is possible if you work hard enough. “I’ve never been happier with myself,” she says.
Canadian Adult Learners’ Week celebrates adult learners across the country and the joy of learning throughout life.
Literacy Nova Scotia is a not-for-profit charitable umbrella organization that works to ensure that all Nova Scotians have equal access to quality literacy, essential skills, and lifelong learning opportunities.
