AACC’s Francheska Salazar has received the 2018 Focus Forward Fellowship from The Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University.
“When I received my acceptance letter, I was over the moon,” she said. “Not only is this fellowship prestigious and competitive, it gave me the best possible support network of accomplished and caring women student-veterans along with the compassionate and well-versed staff at Purdue who are committed to our success.”
The fellowship is designed to build skills, leadership and a sense of community among women student-veterans. Twenty applicants were chosen out of 250. The cohort represents 18 colleges and universities and all five branches of service.
Salazar (pictured in the front row, middle) graduated from AACC with an Associate of Science in Paralegal Studies in General Practice and Litigation in 2017 and will obtain her Associate of Science in Paralegal Studies in Business and an Associate of Arts in Law and Jurisprudence in the spring. She works as temporary staff at AACC’s Technology Learning Center.
The residential portion of the fellowship was at Purdue over the summer. Now she’s involved in a year of assignments and connecting with a professional mentor, coaching mentor and the cohort.
"The sense of community this fellowship provides is invaluable. If this were not enough, the leadership training and professional development, specifically for women by women, by far exceeded my expectations,” she said of the experience so far. “In short, this fellowship has been life changing.”