Local Scholarship Recipient Pens First Book of a Series
Former scholarship recipient of the Betty Ferguson Foundation Scholarship, the Soroptimist International of Greater SCV, L. Nicole Franklin-Cervantes started her new position as a Sociology professor at California State University Northridge, Monday, August 28, 2017. She also launched her new book, The Butterfly Chronicles: A Journey of Radical Transformation, on September 9.
At the age of 34 and as a single mother to her Isiah, and guardian to her cousin, working three jobs, Cervantes decided to go back to school to finish her degree requirements. She relocated to the Santa Clarita Valley and searched out scholarship opportunities and received them from College of the Canyons, the Betty Ferguson Foundation, Soroptimist International of Santa Clarita Valley, and the ASG Applied Arts.
Cervantes worked in the Career Center at College of the Canyons while she was a student and received her A.S. degree from College of the Canyon in 2008, transferred to California State University Northridge and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 2010. She received her M.S.W. in Social Work, phi kappa phi, from California State University Long Beach in May 2013.
While working in the Career Center at CSUN, she was acquired her career position at the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services where she met and married her soulmate, Anthony Cervantes in 2010.
Retiring in 2013 as a children’s social worker from the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services to be a stay-athome mom to her daughter, Cervantes penned the first book, a novel series, based on a true story, The Butterfly Chronicles: A Journey of Radical Transformation.
“The Butterfly Chronicles begins as a brutally honest portrayal of a life layered with pain, helplessness, hopelessness, loss, and a precocious knowledge about drugs and violence that no child should ever learn. However, there was also hope and faith that propelled the main character out of what could have been more broken dreams, desperation, and a continuation of the cycle of violence that has entrapped too many. The transformation reminds us of how essential it is for us to nurture the spirit of all humanity, to nurture the good out of the bad, and to know that we all matter.”- Vickie Jensen Ph.D. Sociology, Chair of Criminology & Justice Studies at California State University, Northridge.
For more information on the book, please visit www.knowledgepowerbooks.com