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(Jennifer Rahn) I feel like Clemson will always be a part
of me.
My town: Ehrhardt, South Carolina. Population: about 600.
It is a very impoverished town. There are only 15% of people there who have a college
diploma so education is not a huge factor there. I guess I just had the determination
that I wanted to do bigger things.
(Jennifer’s mother) Never decided she wanted to be a nurse. She
wanted to be a doctor all the time. She wanted to go to the top.
(Jennifer Rahn) And my parents kind of encouraged me in that;
they supported my dreams. It was something they couldn’t have imagined since they didn’t
even go to college. No one in my family went to college.
My mom is a paramedic and a firefighter. And my dad worked on automobiles like paint and
repair. He passed away during my freshman year here at Clemson from a heat attack. I
had a really close relationship with my dad; he was like my best friend, so it was kind
of tough.
My parents never really said anything about the financial burdens of college but I guess
I just always knew it was there because growing up it was always difficult for us to do certain
things that most of my friends were doing. My life would not have been the same had I
not had the scholarships to come here to Clemson. I would not have had the research opportunities
I have had. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work with cancer patients and to work with
heart failure patients.
(Jennifer’s mother) It took all the financial burden away from
me and as a single parent that means a lot.
(Jennifer Rahn) The opportunities that I have had here would
just have been impossible without it. I had never been outside of the country before I
came to Clemson and I have been on mission trips to the Bahamas. I’ve been in France,
England, Scotland, Belize and I have just gotten more experiences that I could ever
have imagined.
I mean, it is really tough to know that my Dad won’t be here to watch but graduate.
And I know that he will be here in sprit tomorrow.
He would have just been so excited and so proud that his little girl was doing this,
fulfilling the dream that I have always had.