
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993                   TAG: 9311280075
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ON THE DEGREE PATH, STEP BY STEP

When Susan (not her real name) was featured in a Good Neighbors story last year, she had just received money from the fund to buy a new pair of shoes. Without them, she couldn't walk to the bus that took her to Hollins College, where she is in her third year of working toward a bachelor's degree.

She could have bought the shoes, she said, but that would have meant letting the electric bill go, leaving her without light to study by. She was considering dropping out of school until the Good Neighbors Fund came the rescue.

A year later, she still has the shoes, which need replacing, but now she owns a car. Life is much easier for her and her teen-age daughter. She found the car through friends she has made at Hollins and paid for it by cutting corners and asking for small loans, she said.

"When you really try, there's always somebody to help you, as long as you're willing to help yourself," she said.

Money is still a problem for Susan, however. She lives on public assistance, receiving $231 a month, plus food stamps. She is paying for school through grants and loans.

"I've never owed so much money in my life," she said, laughing. But, she reasoned, her tuition will cost less than a new car would and is a much better investment.

Susan had to come back to Roanoke Area Ministries this year for help with her utility bills. Although she lives in a small apartment, the gas bill is often $800 to $900 for the year. But the utility companies "have been really good working with me," she said.

At 46, Susan is looking forward to graduating and is planning for her future. She is majoring in sociology and wants to work with the elderly. She also would like to go to graduate school.

But for now, she's concentrating on finding a job after she finishes her bachelor's degree.

To make things easier, RAM's director, Julie Hollingsworth, arranged for a makeover. Since then, Susan has lost weight, cut her hair, and has picked up useful tips on business etiquette. Although she has worked in offices before, she said, the standards "are constantly changing."

That part of the training was useful, she said, but the makeover portion troubled her.

"It's so contradictory," she said. "We tell young women they don't have to change their appearance to succeed, and then we tell them they do. But what you look like is not as important as how you behave."

To get a job, however, "I'll play the role," she said.

Checks should be made payable to Good Neighbors Fund and mailed to Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 1951, Roanoke 24008.

Names - but not the amounts of donations - of contributing businesses, individuals or organizations, as well as memorial and honorific designations, will be listed. Those requesting that their names not be used will remain anonymous. If no preference is stated, the donor's name will be listed.

Gifts cannot be earmarked for any particular individual or family. Gifts are tax-deductible.

by CNB