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RAYMOND – The struggle has been real for Gena Barlow long before the concept became a popular talking point.��

“I was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six,” said Barlow, who grew up around the��Byram��and Terry area. “Back then, there just wasn’t much you could do about it.��

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“I had a problem keeping up in school. I’d stay up all night studying, but I just struggled with it so bad. With dyslexia, you’re still as smart as everybody else. It just takes a little longer to get it. When you get older, you then have so much more life experience to draw on, so your mind has calmed down.”��

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The 54-year-old mother of five��left high school early, but earned a GED a few years later. To support her family, she learned bookkeeping from her own mother and managed apartments and other rental properties.����

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“I really wanted to go back to school, because I could hardly support myself since I lived on the properties,” she said. “I just had a fear of failing, and I was busy being a mom.”

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A leasing agent at her last apartment complex, who was also attending college at the time, persuaded her to go back to school.��

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“I was nervous about taking notes, but she just said, ‘Nah, they have people now who can take notes for you.’ I just said ‘Wow’!”��

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Two years later, Barlow finds herself achieving things in school she thought weren’t meant for her. She’s attending �������� on the Excellence in Career-Technical Education Scholarship, which has helped tremendously in paying for her continuing education.��She’s��been inducted into the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa on the Raymond Campus and is on track to earn an��Associate of Applied Science degree by spring 2019.��

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She chose to focus on carpentry based on a previous try at a career in real estate brokerage.����

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��“I’ve always liked working with my hands and like to fix things myself,” she said. “I’ve worked around real estate and property management, so now I want to��start making money by��building��the houses myself.”����

Her experience at �������� far exceeded all her initial expectations about going back to school.��

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“The help I got getting through my first few classes is how I got here,” she said. “I wouldn’t have made those grades to get the scholarship. And I had no idea what Phi Theta Kappa was at first – I��thought it was a sorority! But having an honor society on your resume will get you into so many things after school.��

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“I have loved it because everybody is so nice. I just can’t say enough about the instructors and the people here.”��

 

 

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Note: This story appears in the summer 2018 issue of ��������ight alumni magazine. Find out more information about the ��and��Foundation scholarships.