Scholarship helps with second chance at college dream

What causes a student with a work ethic of steel and an unwavering determination to succeed to drop out of college?

For Tabitha Hendricks, it was the devastating news that her mother was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.

At the time, she was in her second year of Niagara College’s Culinary Innovation and Food Technology program. College life was challenging for Hendricks, who was working her way through it to support her education and living expenses.

She turned to Niagara College after high school, seeking a different life from the one she knew. Raised by a single mother in Caistor Centre, a small community in West Lincoln, she grew up on a farm where people were content but lacked financial stability and job security. “I wanted to be independent, to be able to have dreams and actually do them,” she said.

Since she was trained in classical French cuisine, her high school guidance counsellor turned her attention to NC’s Culinary Innovation program, which was then in its infancy. Hendricks enrolled in the program, motivated to apply her culinary background to a new field of study that would lead to a promising and financially rewarding career.

As a college student, she became passionate about food safety and inspections, and the real-world experience her program offered. “The skill set that we gain in the program is what we need for real life; it’s not hypothetical,” she said.

The shocking news of her mother’s illness however, had a dramatic impact on her studies.“You never really predict how hard it’s going to hit you,” she said. “It was an emotional time.”

Her grades slipped, her OSAP was cut, and Hendricks felt she had no choice but to leave college. She helped her mother through chemotherapy, drove her to treatments, gave her injections, and did whatever was needed to help out at home. “My mother raised me on her own; it was time to return the favour,” she said.

Working multiple jobs to help pay the bills, she was determined to save every extra dollar to continue her college education someday.

In fall 2016, her mother went into remission and Hendricks returned to the classroom. She took the maximum number of courses possible to make up for those she missed and increased her average by 17% during her first term back.

Juggling her studies with work has been challenging, but Hendricks is grateful for financial support. Earlier this year, she received a

$1,000 scholarship which has helped ease the burden of financial worry and allowed her to concentrate more on her studies.

“You can work hard but anytime you have a helping hand, it really makes a difference,” she said. “I feel like I can breathe again.”

As the 23-year-old prepares to graduate next year, she looks forward to an exciting career in the food safety and inspection industry. When she’s not in class, she continues to pick up shifts as a sous chef in a winery restaurant, and has been working a part-time job in her field as a quality assurance technician at Original Foods in Dunnville.

“The program has opened up so many opportunities for me,” said Hendricks. “Being in the Culinary Innovation program has already given me the skills to set me apart in the workforce.”

Beyond academics, she is also grateful for life lessons she has learned along the way.

“You never know what life will throw at you,” she said. “It’s about how you bounce back.”

“You can work hard but anytime you have a helping hand, it really makes a difference. I feel like I can breathe again”

– Tabitha