2011 Foundation Scholarship Luncheon
Recipient Stories

Foundation helps resurrect dream of nursing career

Lisa Winkler had always wanted to be a nurse, but she was satisfied with her life as a stay-at-home mom; raising her three children, helping with their school projects and activities, volunteering in their classrooms and serving as her daughter’s Girl Scout leader.

That all changed when her husband decided to end their marriage. In her early 40s, she didn’t know what to do.

“I had the most beautiful life raising a family,” she said. “I treasured and honored what I had. I always wanted to have a career, but my family came first.”

After some serious soul-searching, she decided she needed to return to college if she was going to resurrect her dream of a nursing career. She found what she was looking for at St. Petersburg College. She found the help she would need at Women on the Way, a program designed especially for women returning to school after long absences.

“Women on the Way helped me feel empowered and supported,” she said.

Once she completed her classes at the Clearwater Campus and moved on to the Nursing Program at the Health Center, Women on the Way became less of a viable option. Her studies at the Health Center put miles between her and Women on the Way; she needed something else to fill the void and provide the help and support she needed as a single mom trying to succeed in college.

What she found was the St. Petersburg College Foundation, and the Selma Graham-Bowman Scholarship.

“The scholarships I have been awarded through the Foundation have helped me tremendously,” she said. “The Foundation has given me the opportunity to go to college; I couldn’t have done this without the Foundation, the donors and the scholarships I have received. No way.”

Her success required financial support, but it also required inspiration. She found the financial support through the Foundation, and she found the inspiration in her memories of her late father.

As she told an audience at the Foundation’s 12th Annual Scholarship Appreciation Luncheon on March 4, her father’s encouragement remains very much alive in her memory today.

“My father had been orphaned, but he put himself through school and became the Director of Microbiology for Squibb,” she said. “While in his late 70s he left retirement and returned to work, conducting research for cancer and AIDS for the National Institutes of Health in the mid 1980s.

“My sister was very smart, and my brother was very musically talented,” she recalled. “I used to ask my father what gift I had, and he told me I was kind, compassionate and caring. I felt that was about the worst thing, but I feel so empowered by that gift now.

It is such an honor and a blessing to be able to care for people.

She most likely will graduate with honors with a degree in Registered Nursing in December 2011. She looks forward to one day being a Hospice nurse, and s hopes to earn a master’s in nursing in the not-too-distant future.

“At some point I want to do missionary work, and volunteer with the Red Cross,” she said. “I am very grateful to the donors who have helped make my education possible, and when I get into the position to give back I want to give back big-time.”

“I probably won’t be able to do that with finances,” she said. “But I will be able to help others by sharing my gift through compassionate, therapeutic nursing care. I would much rather give than receive.”

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Eric Bank

Hello and thank you for your welcome. My name is Eric Bank and I originally come from New England. New Englanders tend to use stories to inform; and so, I would like to tell you a small story now:

A 59-year-old man has been riding upon the swirling currents of life for as long as the man’s memory can see. He has borne witness to monumental events, experienced the extraordinary, and marveled at the timeless wonders of Man’s invention. Drifting and rudderless, he knows something is missing in his life; but ultimately he knows: it’s not about where you find yourself - it’s when.

I am that man. I have been to the mountaintop countless times in my life, and I have been washed upon the shores of complete ruin in equal measure. When I began my studies at St. Petersburg College, my life was in desperate need of renewed focus, of renewed confidence and of renewed purpose. Just like flipping a switch, I had finally decided to utilize all the natural talents and the depth of experiences I do possess in seeking my baccalaureate degree in paralegalism - with the fullest intent to go on and gain a Doctorate in Law. My classes at St. Petersburg College have reawakened me and imbued me with a personal strength I never thought to feel again. My return to school and excelling in my studies has become that missing rudder now guiding me through those swirling currents of life.

Such a mission of reclamation is a continual rebuilding process - if not an entire recreation. All humans are fragile creatures and I am no exception. With that being said, I wish all of you to know that my receiving the Charles E. Belcher Memorial Scholarship means more to me than simply the monetary aid the Scholarship has so generously provided (though that certainly was a huge help). Moreover, receiving the Charles E. Belcher Memorial Scholarship has given me the meaning and understanding that I have gained the faith, the trust, and the confidence of the people representing the Charles E. Belcher Memorial Scholarship - in that I would succeed, that I would earn my degree, and that I would realize my goals.

I promise to prove worthy of these gifts you have bestowed upon me.

I sincerely thank the entire faculty and staff of St. Petersburg College; the trustees, the managers, and staff of the St. Petersburg College Foundation - and especially, I wish to thank the members of the Charles E. Belcher Memorial Scholarship. I thank all of you for your selfless assistance, for your supportive confidence, for your generous recognition, and for your healing trust in supporting my quest to attain and finally hold my dreams.

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Maria Lynn Kyrkostas

To me the Foundation Scholarship program is as precious as a bar of Gold.

My Name is Maria Lynn Kyrkostas and I am a single mother of two sons also attending St. Petersburg College. I am a recipient of the Blanton / Foundation Scholarship and the SPC Development Fund Ratcliff Endowment School Scholarship.  I am a returning college student after being out of college for 24 years. My major was Mass Communications and I had plans to continue to study business management and marketing. I am currently studying Homeland Security.

I left college 24 years ago to help my husband and brothers start a limousine business on Wall Street. Soon after that I became busy starting our family. I always intended to return back to college but did not have the opportunity to do so until I was laid off in 2009. Like so many others who are unemployed, my position was out sourced. I had been in the Real Estate industry and also the Pre-Employment solutions industry for the last 10 years selling web-based solutions to hiring managers of Fortune 500 companies internationally. First with Lexis-Nexis and then here in St Pete with First Advantage.

When I was laid off from First Advantage I was frightened about how I was going to support my two sons Christopher and Constantine. I went to a vocational rehabilitation session in hopes to find a new path or a career. They advised me to return to college so that I could complete my course work and earn credits toward my degree and certificate.

Without the help and assistance of the Foundation members it would not be possible for me to return back to college at this time. It is hard enough to be a single mother of two young men let alone an unemployed single mother of two young men. College would have been impossible without the generous donations from our foundation members.

With all three of us at St Petersburg College our home is like a college dorm - library. Somebody is always logged into Angel, writing a paper, uploading an assignment into a drop box, commenting on a class discussion or taking an exam. For most students, going to college is a challenge and for me it has proven to be a greater challenge. I have some degree of learning disabilities but as with most adults we learn to manage and work through it. Even if it means having to re read a chapter three times because having an education is priceless.

In my free time I enjoy swing dancing and can be found at the Gulfport Pier learning new dance steps with my dance partner. I also help many friends and friends of friends navigate through the difficult mortgage modification process in hopes to help them save their home from foreclosure. I enjoy writing op-ed articles about the current state of affairs, from issues about ending personal banking over draft fees, Prescription drug epidemic issues in Florida and additionally sending Congress recommendations on Identity theft protection for all citizens and modification to our multi-jurisdictional court code language that makes tracking down terrorists and criminals so difficult.

I have always believed that education starts in our home and parenting is best done by setting an example. I am here to not only set higher standards for myself but to set an example for my two sons. My grandparents came to America to be free from terrorists when the Turkish took over the Greek town, Smyrna in the early 1920s.

My great grandparents were killed when the Turkish regime came in the middle of the night to kill off all Greeks because they were Christians. If it were not for my Great Grandfather giving his six children each a bar of gold they would never have escaped. Each of the children were brought to the port in town and placed on a cargo ship. They each handed the ship’s captain that bar of gold in exchange for freedom. They hid in empty caskets on board and were brought to the main land of Greece and then on to New York via Ellis Island.

The foundation Scholarship has granted my two sons and myself a similar bar of gold. It is a ticket to our freedom because it will allow us to achieve new dreams and a higher standard of living because of a higher education. Without the dynamic and plentiful resources behind the Foundation Scholarship I would not be able to for fill my dreams of a college education and beyond!

Thank You and God bless you!

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