Bette Mae Pennington

I grew up in a loving home with two parents, but a monster lurked in the shadows. Addiction played an ominous role in my household, always looming and waiting to strike. On December 28th, 2017 my father attempted to murder my family due to his intensifying drug habits and untreated mental illness. He was unsuccessful, but ran away with the only money he had immediate access to: my college fund. Eleven months later on November 27th, 2018 he committed suicide. This contributed to my own mental health struggles and extreme financial hardship as my family was in hiding for the duration of that year until the court case went to trial. Due to my father’s suicide, my family received zero life insurance after his passing, and instead wound up in extreme debt from the damage he caused on his path to self-destruction.

As a sixteen-year-old girl who loved her father dearly despite his vices, I was grief-stricken. As a junior in high school who scraped by, unable to tell her friends where she was and terrified to leave the house, I was left with the notion that college was not an option. I joined the workforce and secured a full-time position in hopes of obtaining financial security. I saved money not knowing what it would be used for but soon recognizing I didn’t want to be the “left behind.” I took the leap to pursue education in 2023 as I found a passion for wanting to help others in similar situations. I am now a Criminal Justice major, hoping to utilize my education and prior experience. Unfortunately, due to this life experience, I also now lack funds for college and only have what I worked tirelessly to save as I transition to a four-year university.

Having life insurance would have allowed us to remain in a stable home. My mother has worked her entire life to provide for us children through my father’s nefarious activities. Instead, she has spent the last 7 years barely keeping her head above water in attempts to break even with my father’s debts. I am on my own when it comes to my education, and I knew that wasn’t her fault. My mother wanted nothing more than for me to become an educated young woman, and I know the extreme burden it has caused her to accept the fact she could not support me in college. I am currently accepted into multiple schools in California, with the hopes of getting into Cal State San Diego, which offers one of the top Criminal Justice programs in the state. I work diligently to make this a reality by maintaining a 4.0 GPA, continuing to work 30-40 hour work weeks, and applying for scholarships such as this one. I want my mother to retire someday, I want to raise a stable family, and most of all: I want to live the life that was almost taken from me, and this scholarship could change the course of my future.