Fall 2023 Scholarship Winner

Ashten Green

We are happy to provide Ashten with financial support as she pursues her academic aspirations. Ashten is an active-duty Army spouse and mother of two. Read Ashten’s essay to learn more about the obstacles her young family has faced over recent years and the new start she plans to make by attending college.

Read Ashten's Essay:

My name is Ashten Green, and I am proud to say I have been accepted as a freshman at Southern New Hampshire University. My first semester starts January 2nd 2023. I would like to begin this scholarship essay by thanking you for the opportunity to further my success in the future, and taking the time to consider me as a candidate for your scholarship. I am a prior Texas resident myself, my family that lives in Temple and Little Rock TX.

I am currently an active duty Army spouse. Our current duty station is Joint Base Fort Lewis McChord, this is our second duty station. Our first was Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I have two children, their ages are five and one. Due to the nature of my husband's employment needs I have been a stay at home caretaker for our children for the past 5 years. It has been challenging and rewarding in many ways, however I am ready to earn my degree and start the next chapter of our lives.

Our oldest child Camron, is autistic and has attended several therapies such as; ABA, OT, and Speech.This has required a lot of one on one time and patience, but it has been worth every moment. While we were discovering his new needs and developing and understanding of what it would take to help him be ready for school. It required me to step away from my original field of work. That was very difficult for our house financially, but our children always come first. When Camron turned two we received his first diagnosis, which is autism with a receptive hearing delay. At this point he still wasn’t communicating, but it gave us a direction of where to go with his therapies. By his third birthday and several hours of intensive speech therapy and work at home he finally started speaking and using some sign language to communicate. Camron is now in kindergarten and thriving. He has friends, he can tell us what he needs to, and he is able to keep up on his school work like the other kids. Even though having a child with unexpected needs was challenging and at times stressful, the delay starting college was worth it. It also allowed me to have longer one on one time with our youngest son Colter.

Now that our oldest is in school and our youngest is more self-sufficient at home. Earning a degree would help our family in the future immensely by allowing me to have better career opportunities that would provide higher funds to offset our regular and therapy expenses, and less college debt to be paid back later. We would like to assist our own children in their careers as they get older. Vocational or otherwise.

Starting with a fresh education will be a blessing and at first a slight setback. My careers in the past were in the medical field with trade certificates such as a CNA License, as well as certificates I received as a firefighter five years ago, Starting my first semester of college will be a little bit different than my prior career learning environments and possibly even a challenge for me, but with a little financial help for extra costs, I believe a college education is the right choice for not only myself, but my family as well.