{"id":1627,"date":"2019-11-12T14:01:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/?p=1627"},"modified":"2019-11-21T14:05:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T20:05:22","slug":"ssc-features-first-to-finish-student-kristen-dougan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/ssc-features-first-to-finish-student-kristen-dougan\/","title":{"rendered":"SSC Features \u201cFirst to Finish\u201d Student Kristen Dougan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Student Support Services and STEM Student Support Services recently sponsored “First to Finish,” a yearly event that features a speaker, or a panel of speakers, who discuss being the first in their family to complete college.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
Seminole State College sophomore and first-generation college student Kristen Dougan surrounded by fellow SSS\/STEM SSS participants who heard her speak on Nov. 6. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kristen Dougan,\nSSC sophomore and first-generation college student, addressed a group of fellow\nSSS students on Nov. 6.  Her topic was “Never Give Up, No Matter What.” \nDougan was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at the age of nine months and doctors\ndid not expect her to live beyond the age of two years.  Just recently,\nshe celebrated her twenty-first birthday and is a thriving young\nlady.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her\npresentation, Dougan encouraged and motivated her fellow classmates to press on\nin their education and in life, despite any barriers that arise.  She spoke\nabout a time when a care-giver told her she would never be able to attend\ncollege and succeed and how she quickly fired the care-giver. She shared the\nimportance of students surrounding themselves with a strong support system while\npursuing their dreams.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dougan will\ngraduate from SSC in December 2019 with a computer science degree and plans to\ncontinue her education at the University of Central Oklahoma in forensic science. \nHer career plans are to become a digital forensic scientist.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Kristen\nis such an inspiration to our participants and to our staff.  She is a\nrare gem.  She is full of wisdom, life, love, and laughter.  I did\nnot want her to leave SSC without sharing her light to a group of our\nstudents.  She has told us that she wants to speak to K-12 students about\ndisability awareness.  My hope was that this would be a great opportunity\nfor her to begin to share her story.  Kristen had never shared her story\nwith a group before, but was so excited to do so.  I know her talk was a\nhuge blessing for us.  There is no doubt that she will continue to be an\ninspiration and do great things,” said Janna Wilson-Byrd, Director of\nSSS\/STEM SSS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SSS\/STEM SSS is\na federally funded program by the U.S. Department of Education in cooperation\nwith Seminole State College. For more information about SSS\/STEM SSS,\nplease contact Wilson-Byrd at 405-382-9642 or visit www.sscok.edu\/sss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student Support Services and STEM Student Support Services recently sponsored “First to Finish,” a yearly event that features a speaker, or a panel of speakers, who discuss being the first in their family to complete college.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,37],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-1627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-http-www-sscok-edu-media-academics","category-grant-programs","tag-november-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1629,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627\/revisions\/1629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}