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Megan Laurie
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Kyle Chilton
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UVSC Alumna Garners Recognition in Washington D.C.
Utah Valley State College alumna Elizabeth Lewin-Fisher has been awarded the National TRiO Achiever Award and is the first recipient of the award from the state of Utah. Lewin-Fisher, who graduated from UVSC with a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science in 2001, will receive the award at the TRiO Achiever's Luncheon on Monday, September 19, at the Washington Hilton and Towers in Washington D.C.
“I am so proud of Elizabeth,” said Keith Jensen, director of UVSC’s TRiO Student Support Services (SSS). “She is the perfect example of resiliency of the human spirit in transforming challenges into opportunities for growth.”
The TRiO program helps students overcome class, social and cultural barriers to succeed in higher education. The achiever award is presented to a TRiO participant who has successfully completed the program and moved on to make significant contributions in his or her profession.
Lewin-Fisher, now a social worker at Wasatch Mental Health, was originally told by a rehabilitation counselor that college was not an option for her. Through persistence, she convinced the counselor to enroll her at UVSC. Lewin-Fisher did well her first semester but as a single mother of six children struggling with learning disabilities; she had difficulty with certain classes. She went to UVSC's TRiO SSS office and received the help and guidance she needed to not only graduate, but to go on and earn a master’s degree in social work at the University of Utah in 2004.
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