Alumni Spotlight: Lisa Vandelac

A.A.S. Medical Assisting '13 Hometown: Wasilla, Alaska Fun Fact: Grandma to Natalie, age two.

On May 5, at the insistence of her daughters, Lisa Vandelac put on her first cap and gown to celebrate a successful second chance. After more than 20 years as a hairdresser and single mom to two girls, she seized her opportunity to write a new chapter in the story of her life.

This year is peppered with milestones for Lisa-her college graduation, her 50th birthday and the sixth anniversary of her sobriety.

"I've never been full of so much hope," she says. "That's what got me through."

Lisa doesn't waste energy regretting the past. "I wouldn't be who I am if all that hadn't happened," she says. "It's amazing to say you're grateful for a messed up life or decisions, but it's what got me where I am."

On her own at 15, she did what was in front of her. She never got the chance to walk across the graduation stage in high school, instead earning a GED at age 17 while working as a waitress.

"Hairdressing was never my calling; it just kind of fell in my lap," she says. But she was good at it. After the first few awkward talk-about-the-weather appointments with clients, she learned how to be a supportive listener and how to ask the right questions to develop a trust relationship.

She couldn't have known then that nurturing those great interpersonal skills would give her a leg up in college.

Just a few years ago, she was the proud mom in that Sullivan Arena crowd, cheering on her oldest daughter as she accepted her college diploma from UAA. Mother-of-the-grad Lisa didn't think their positions would ever be reversed until she talked with a vocational rehabilitation counselor and met several people in recovery who were pursuing college degrees.

"Asking for help is really, really hard," Lisa says. But her journey through recovery taught her that it could also be really beneficial.

"I didn't realize I could have been doing this all along, had I applied for Pell Grants," she says of navigating the financial hurdles to get into college. "I did that with my daughter, but I didn't connect it to me. When I finally did all the footwork, it fell into place."

She applied for and was awarded the University of Alaska Foundation Second Chance Scholarship two years in a row. "It called to me since it's what I'm experiencing, a second chance."

"If it wasn't for the help I've gotten, I don't think I could have done it," she says. "At least not as gracefully as I have. It's taken the worry out."

She admits she was a little scared to start her first semester. "I haven't done a 'first week' anywhere new for years." But she knew how to work hard and her grades consistently proved her ability to thrive in the medical assisting program.

Slashing her work hours to focus on school was also a leap of faith.

"Jumping from five, six days a week down to two, I didn't think I could do that," she admits. But Pell grants and scholarships paved the way.

"I have a new faith that things will work out," she says. "And they have."

The final step in the medical assisting program is an externship where students gain valuable experience working in a clinical setting. Lisa is set to spend six weeks working at Mat-Su Health Services then it's one more leap of faith into a new career.