{"id":47,"date":"2012-06-18T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-18T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/?p=47"},"modified":"2024-11-14T09:46:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:46:58","slug":"sarah-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/sarah-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Against heavy odds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ecampus grad Sarah Price uses education to create a path to a better life<\/h2>\n

Success for Sarah Price could be measured simply by the fact that she survived her childhood, a period she calls “the black hole.” What she is about to do \u2013 graduate from Oregon State University \u2013 is the definition of a pipe dream come true.
\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"Sarah\"Play\" <\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

Ecampus grad Sarah Price shares her story and how she overcame a predetermined path to poverty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When asked about her past, Price recalls hunger, sifting through government-issued food with her younger sister, Mandy, to scrape together a cake frosting and peanut butter sandwich, or some other strange concoction of \u201cdisgusting and extremely unhealthy food.\u201d<\/p>\n

She remembers moving 30 times by her 15th birthday, seeing her siblings sleep in a crammed laundry room, having electricity thanks only to the long, orange extension cord running from the neighbor\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

But what motivated Price was the fact that no one in her family ever graduated from high school, a grim reality that never prevented them from promising Sarah and her siblings a lavish lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole childhood, my parents said, \u2018We\u2019re gonna win the lottery,\u2019 and I honestly thought we were going to win,\u201d Sarah, 26, says now. \u201cThat was their plan. I thought we just had to hold on until that day came.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I learned that you can\u2019t live life that way. Good things aren\u2019t going to fall into your lap. You have to make it happen for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

If anyone were destined for failure, it was Price. Out of nothing, she became the embodiment of self-made success, and now she is on the cusp of earning a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies<\/a> after taking classes online through OSU Ecampus.<\/p>\n

The thirst for education, she says, is precisely what guided her out of poverty.<\/p>\n

16, alone<\/h3>\n

Price had a front-row seat to her parents\u2019 perpetual struggles as they hopped from one job to the next and one town after another in Oregon and Washington during her childhood. They were occasionally homeless, and their lottery numbers never hit.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until middle school that Sarah began to notice just how destitute her family was. She and her siblings often lacked adequate clothing, which was especially torturous for a teenager who wanted to wear brand-name items like her classmates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I did,\u201d Price says now with a chuckle, \u201cwas take the old Tommy Hilfiger clothes that someone had given away, and I\u2019d cut off the labels and sew them on to the clothes that actually fit me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somehow, Price was settling in nicely at West Albany High School, located 12 miles from the OSU campus. She turned 16 in 2002 and became motivated to follow in a friend\u2019s footsteps by accelerating her studies and graduating early.<\/p>\n

But then her mom proposed a plan that would take the family to California. Price, fed up with the aimless lifestyle, wanted no part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her I wasn\u2019t going to uproot everything I had going for myself in school to follow her around the country,\u201d she said. \u201cSo she left, and I stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Price was homeless again, this time on her own as a high school sophomore. She was unsure where her next meal would come from \u2013 a familiar reality \u2013 but she was most concerned with finding a reliable way to get to school every day.<\/p>\n

The only person she could count on was herself.<\/p>\n

Challenged, undeterred<\/h3>\n

Whatever fear Price had about living on her own was replaced by a desire to accomplish something meaningful, so she lost herself in her studies, taking day and night classes to keep herself on pace for early graduation.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Sarah<\/div>\n

Sarah Price and her two youngest children, Lilly and Rory, play games in their home in San Diego.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Eventually she got a full-time job at a laundry facility and, through some not-so-legal maneuvers, rented her own apartment at age 17.<\/p>\n

Price worked weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and then walked a couple miles to night school, where she studied until 9 p.m. There was genuine stability in her life for the first time, and graduation was around the corner.<\/p>\n

Then she got pregnant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could\u2019ve freaked out about it, but I don\u2019t spend a lot of time freaking out about things,\u201d Price says. \u201cMy attitude toward it was, \u2018Oh, well. You\u2019ve gotta do what you\u2019ve gotta do to keep going,\u2019 and that\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undeterred and five months pregnant, she received her high school diploma in 2003 \u2013 one year ahead of schedule. It was a milestone in her life, but she was already fixated on college.<\/p>\n

There was a slight problem, though: Price was poor. Shortly after giving birth to a boy named Noah, she bought a stroller on layaway from a used store. It cost $26, and it took two months to pay for it.<\/p>\n

College seemed like too ambitious a venture, but it wasn\u2019t wise to bet against Price.<\/p>\n

Ecampus, and a way forward<\/h3>\n

The joy brought about by her new son was enhanced two years later when she was admitted to OSU. Price enrolled in classes on OSU\u2019s Corvallis campus, but her studies were plagued by various stops and starts. She gave birth to daughter Lilly in 2007 and tried to juggle life as a single, working mom and college student. It didn\u2019t always work well.<\/p>\n

At every turn, life presented another barrier between Price and her work as a liberal studies major, but nothing fazed her. Not the failed relationships. Not the persistent poverty. Not the constant stress.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, she was 1,000 miles away from Corvallis, and Andrew\u2019s work kept him away from home for 24-hour shifts \u2013 meaning three young kids needed her constant attention.<\/p>\n

Thanks to OSU Ecampus, Price didn\u2019t miss a beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I could have continued going to school without Ecampus,\u201d she says. \u201cStay-at-home moms can finally advance their education. It still requires a lot of hard work, but if you have the will to do it, Ecampus can be the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her grades soared. Once a middling student with a 2.1 GPA, Price now boasts a 3.2 and posted a 3.96 last winter. While taking an average of 15 credits per term, she has made OSU\u2019s honor roll three times in the last two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to work with Sarah while she was on the upswing, and I didn\u2019t really have the impression that she had initially struggled,\u201d said liberal studies advisor Ashleigh Stubblefield. \u201cShe and I never discussed her past except for that she was raising children, working and going to school full time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to her success that I never thought she had overcome so much and that she seemed like a \u2018regular\u2019 student.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dream, in reach<\/h3>\n
\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

In 2009 she married a Marine named Andrew Price, and she regained her footing for a while. She was inching closer to college graduation when she and Andrew welcomed a third child, Rory, to the family, and then the Marine Corps relocated the Prices to Oceanside, Calif.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s hard for Price to keep the excitement about graduation at bay. Through nonstop disappointment in her childhood, she instinctually stopped expecting good things to happen to her.<\/p>\n

She sees this as a good thing. It means she never coasts to the finish line, forcing her to work diligently until a goal is realized.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our first conversations early on when we were dating was about how important education is, so she\u2019s always been very driven,\u201d says husband Andrew, who met his wife in a class at Linn Benton Community College in 2008. \u201cGraduation is all that hard work paying off. It\u2019s been incredible to witness her accomplish so much and be recognized for it. It\u2019s been all desserts for her lately.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Price continues to set herself up for success while looking for ways to help others live better a life. She volunteers for the Human Rights Campaign of Los Angeles, and she\u2019s also a mentor in a program on the military base in Miramar, Calif., that helps families acclimate to the military lifestyle. Her goal is to land a job as a human resources manager or perhaps a domestic violence counselor.<\/p>\n

She has become a model of success for her children, and she and sister Mandy have remained close \u2013 \u201cWe\u2019re best friends,\u201d Price says \u2013 through all of life\u2019s turbulence. And even her previously disconnected family in Oregon has taken notice of her success. They\u2019ve showered her with support as OSU\u2019s commencement nears, and they\u2019re making an effort to celebrate properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy aunt is having a barbecue for me in Corvallis when we\u2019re up there, and I cried about that because I was so excited that someone thought to do that for me,\u201d she said. \u201cFor a lot of people, of course their family would throw them a graduation party. But it\u2019s not a given for me. I wasn\u2019t expecting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As much as anyone, Price has earned the right to happiness. But she knows that grand expectations are no substitute for hard work. When she walks across the stage and receives her diploma this week in Corvallis, it will be a moment of triumph in the face of terrible odds.<\/p>\n

Lottery winners should be so lucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had goals for my future, and I knew school would be the key,\u201d she says. \u201cGetting my degree is another step in making sure my kids have a better childhood than I did. That makes it all worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span> 7<\/span> minute read<\/span><\/span>Ecampus grad Sarah Price uses education to create a path to a better life Success for Sarah Price could be measured simply by the fact that she survived her childhood, a period she calls “the black hole.” What she is about to do \u2013 graduate from Oregon State University \u2013 is the definition of a … Against heavy odds<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[673],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BNSE-L","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":549,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/sarah-brown\/","url_meta":{"origin":47,"position":0},"title":"It was an ambitious dream. 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