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Deborah Robinson is following her educational dream. As a DeKalb Technical College Business Administration student, she was struggling to provide for her 3 children and pay for her education. “My financial aid has capped out so I didn’t know how I was going to pay for school and take care of my family at the same time,” says Robinson. That’s when the Stone Mountain Rotary Club stepped in. Robinson had applied for a Rotary scholarship through the DeKalb Tech Foundation. “The Rotary is known as a humanitarian organization worldwide,” says Cynthia Edwards, DeKalb Tech’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement and member of the Stone Mountain Rotary Club. Edwards adds, “They not only look at funding education experiences internationally, but the Stone Mountain Rotary also wants to give a scholarship to a local student. So they have partnered with DeKalb Tech over the years to be able to provide a scholarship to one of our students.”
Robinson attended DeKalb Tech from 1998 to 2000 and graduated with her diploma in cosmetology. She returned to DeKalb Tech in the fall of 2007 to get her degree in business administration. She says she needed the information. “I couldn’t have a business if I didn’t know what business was all about,” says Robinson. The scholarship will cover Robinson’s entire tuition for the remaining three quarters she will be in class to get her degree. Her ultimate goal is to become a child advocate. “I want to help children BEFORE they make bad choices that will impact the rest of their lives,” Robinson says. When asked if she was familiar with the Rotary Club of Stone Mountain, Robinson replied with a broad smile, “I am now.” She will become even more familiar with the organization because as a term of receiving the scholarship she is required to attend a meeting at least once per quarter for the remainder of her academic coursework at DeKalb Tech. The Rotary Club of Stone Mountain Scholarship fund was established in the fall of 2008 as a means to help students financially. Robinson was among three candidates for the scholarship this year. The Ellenwood resident works in record management at the Georgia Archives. Robinson is not only a mother, but a grandmother of nine. Cynthia Edwards says Robinson is a role model for her grandchildren. She says they often ask their grandmother, “Are you going to work, or are you going to school?” Now with this scholarship she can do both.
DeKalb Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, promotes a student-centered environment for lifelong learning and development, encompassing academic and technical education for employment in a global community. The college has eight centers of learning in DeKalb, Newton, Rockdale, and Morgan counties. Established in 1961, DeKalb Technical College currently has more than 4,000 students enrolled in diploma or degree programs and more than 9,000 in adult education classes. Academic and Technical programs at DeKalb Tech cover more than 100 different occupations. For more information visit our website at www.dekalbtech.edu.
Photo: (L-R) – Cynthia Edwards, DeKalb Tech Vice President of Institutional Advancement; Deborah Robinson Rotary Club of Stone Mountain scholarship recipient
