Read about students sharing their experience of how scholarships and programs funded by donors have made a difference.
An inspirational conversation with Talley Sagot, Scholarship Recipient
As I talked with Talley Sagot on the phone, I could hear her cooking, doing dishes, answering her son Anderson’s questions, giving Anderson direction, talking to me about her experiences - all of this with gusto and without any breaks in our conversation. She didn’t seem fazed in the least. After all, Talley has had some practice in multitasking ventures.
Following high school, Talley’s initial endeavors in college were sidelined in order to care for her newborn son. Talley worked for four years before attempting to take college courses again. She enjoyed being back in school and the good grades were affirmation that she made the right decision to re-enter school. However, exhausted from working full time, raising her son and attending classes, she wondered how she was going to get through college because she could only enroll in so many classes.
Talley’s math tutor, College of San Mateo math Professor Rosalie O’Mahony, recognized Talley’s potential and also observed the challenges Talley faced in balancing classes with all of the other demands on her time. She credits Professor O’Mahony’ with motivating her to continue her pursuit of her studies and advising Talley to look into scholarship funding.
Upon receiving scholarships, including a generous one from the San Mateo County Community College District’s Retirees group, Talley was able to significantly decrease her working hours and increase her study hours. She was able to tackle some of the more difficult classes in her major (calculus, chemistry, zoology) that required intense study in order to succeed.
While working in the ‘real world’ Talley had time to think about what she wanted to do career-wise. As a young girl, Talley regularly visited her father who lived on a boat in the Berkeley Marina. She eventually fell in love with the ocean – its inherent mysteriousness drew her in and made her want to learn more. These early experiences inspired her to take a class in oceanography and aim for a career in marine biology. She sustained a competitive GPA and has since been accepted to UC Santa Cruz, an institution renowned for its marine biology program. Talley is especially passionate about mariculture, which involves the cultivation of food and other products in the open ocean. Talley feels that when implemented correctly, mariculture can provide an environmentally sound and sustainable resource, and she looks forward to exploring these concepts as she continues her studies.
At the end of our conversation, Talley closes with telling me that the impact of the scholarships helped her come out of her shell (no maritime pun intended). She added that she looks forward to one day helping others become who they want to be, as scholarship donors have done for her.
- Submitted by Stephani F. Scott, SMCCCF Executive Director