Meet our 2021 Live Your Dream Winner – Jessa Turner

We are so thrilled to introduce you to our Live Your Dreams Award Winner – Jessa Turner.  This Soroptimist signature award is for women who are the primary head of household and support their families while enrolled in post-secondary education. Jessa is an amazing woman who has overcome tremendous challenges to become a student at Douglas College in the Health Care Support Worker program. This $5000 award is generously sponsored by Townline Homes & TL Housing.

“Winning the “Live your Dream Award” means my life has monumentally changed and it really meant the world to me to be chosen as the scholarship winner. There were many, many years when the only dream I could foresee having was to make it another month or year alive and in one piece…and then life began to slowly transform, and I was able to register for post-secondary to chase my lifelong dream of working in mental health and healthcare to assist others on the same path of struggles I had lived.

As a single mom of 3 older kids my youngest being 17, we all know kids still need help even past the age of 19 and as a sole supporter of my 3 the scholarship has helped ease the financial burden of going to school and running a household. It truly goes beyond the financial aspect of winning because I’ve also never won an award and at the age of 42 I for once truly could call myself a winner. 

And, to win this award while ultimately living my dream and working towards a lifelong goal that was once just that- a dream…. it’s really a testimony to be able to realize we can definitely make goals and aspire to be who we truly want to. 

I thank all who made this possible from those who supported my nomination to Townline Homes that sponsored the scholarship. I promise to make you all proud in my career and ultimately be able to make myself proud for the first time.”