Financial help enabled Major General Irene Trowell-Harris (USAF retired) (featured right) to attend TC. Now she's doing the same for today's students through the TC Fund.

How does one earn flight nurse wings, master’s and doctoral degrees, and the rank of major general (two stars) in the U.S. Air Force, write a book (Sky High: No Goal Is Out of Your Reach), and win appointment by the White House to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Women Veterans? For Irene Trowell-Harris (Ed.M., Ed.D. ’83)(featured right), the answers included discipline, networking, mentoring and executive leadership. But Irene is also quick to credit the aid she received for her education, which is why she in turn contributes to the Annual Fund Scholars Program, which underwrites TC students’ financial aid packages.

“Like me, many students might not have been able to pursue their dreams without financial support,” she says. “The Annual Fund Scholars initiative appealed to me because it helps students pursue opportunities in education, providing them with crucial financial support and inspiring them to reach their potential as the next generation of professionals.” 

Irene is especially proud that her participation reinforces TC’s ability to offer competitive financial aid packages that will attract and retain gifted students whose achievements will advance the College’s legacy of excellence in scholarship, policy and practice.

“The true value of my accomplishments must be in using them to benefit society—specifically, college students, family, church, community, state and country,” she says. “My greatest joy in life is mentoring and helping others to become successful and achieve their potential as leaders for the next generation.”

(Published 3/6/2013)

Published Wednesday, Mar. 6, 2013