2019年毕业生故事:凯齐亚·蒂尔

卡齐亚·蒂尔的坚韧和坚毅在书中 简斯维尔:一个美国故事， the award-winning account of a Wisconsin community whiplashed by the closing of a General Motors assembly plant two days before Christmas 2008.

When the middle-class economic security they'd always known disappeared with their father's job, Kayzia和她的双胞胎妹妹, 阿莉莎, became amazing examples of indomitable persistence in overcoming dire challenges.

以帮助家庭预算, Kayzia took on a pair of part-time jobs 和 阿莉莎 worked one while continuing their college prep courses at Parker High in Janesville. They took their mother grocery shopping with their paychecks while their proud father slept. 在一起, 他们赚了足够的钱, 一次只拿一份兼职工资, 让他们的家人不用领取食品券. Kayzia made her way through college at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with minimal need-based financial aid, 为了养家糊口，她打三份工.

Exhaustively researched by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Amy Goldstein 和 published nine years after the devastating plant closing, 简斯维尔:一个美国故事 被《可以买滚球的正规平台》评为年度最佳书籍 金融时报》 和 麦肯锡商业, made a list of recommended reads of former President Barack Obama, 并获得了五星好评 纽约时报, 华盛顿邮报》 和 《正规买球平台有哪些》.

然而，Kayzia不能告诉你这本书是否值得一读. She hasn't read it because she has been too busy living a new chapter.

叫它 凯齐亚·蒂尔:可以买滚球的正规平台的故事.

在周六, 5月11日——和她的父母, 她的双胞胎, 她的丈夫, 亚当, 和 their sons Ezra 和 Elias (19 months 和 nine weeks old, (分别)看着——Kayzia将收集她的St. 可以买滚球的正规平台社会工作硕士学位.

It will be the culmination of more than two years of twice-weekly, three-hour one-way drives from Janesville to Davenport, followed by a year of making that same trek once per week. For many of those miles, she was pregnant with her boys.

Add the countless hours of study 和 hybrid online coursework, plus a practicum at a Wisconsin county agency located an hour-和-a-half from Janesville, 和 you have a story that augments Kayzia's resume of dogged determination.

Still, Kayzia - whose name has biblical roots within the 约伯记 - doesn't see her American story as particularly different than those of 25 fellow Ambrosians who also will collect their MSW degrees at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, 伊利诺斯州, 在周六.

很多同学都利用了这段时间, hybrid option that allowed Kayzia to complete her degree in the midst of a busy life of parenting, 工作和提供.

“每个人的情况都不一样，”她说. "I always tell people my experiences made me grow up a lot faster, 但我不认为他们塑造了我."

事实上, Kayzia would have been driven 和 unstoppable even had trucks 和 SUVs kept rolling off the assembly line in Janesville. The uncommon strength she displayed as a teen didn't simply emerge in the face of a family crisis.

What she gained from that buckle-up-和-grow-up challenge, 然而, was a deeper underst和ing of communal need 和 the power of compassion. Those things helped her recognize that social work was her calling 和, 除此之外, that the empowerment model of social work practice taught at St. 可以买滚球的正规平台是一个完美的人选.

"I volunteered at a nursing home my gr和ma worked at from the time I was little," Kayzia said. “所以，我一直有一种帮助别人的热情. But my experiences have allowed me to use what I've learned to empathize 和 really connect with people."

这是经验. 复数. Kayzia also knows the challenges post 9/11 military veterans 和 their families endure, having watched the slightly older boyfriend she came to know through a grade-school production of 屋顶上的小提琴手 deploy to Afghanistan while she was finishing high school (亚当 returned with a marriage proposal.)

It's why her capstone MSW research project this past semester looked at military spouses 和 the stigmas they encounter. 更重要的是, it's why she was able to relate to a suicidal veteran during a counseling practicum experience 和 calmly direct him to the help he needed through the VA.

“当我们让他出院的时候, he said ‘I want to tell you to keep doing what you're doing because we need more people like you,凯齐亚回忆道.

谈谈赋权.

通过圣. 可以买滚球的正规平台, Kayzia said she has learned how to better make a difference. "So many good things come out of this program," she said.

"Seeing the different things people here are doing in their communities, I really learned that policy 和 advocacy are important. 我觉得……. 可以买滚球的正规平台给了我说‘我能做到’的机会. 我可以坚持我的信仰."'

任何人读过 简斯维尔:一个美国故事 知道. And while she's not yet emotionally in a place to read about those lost years of childhood, Kayzia was granted a glimpse into what the book revealed through the eyes of a gr和mother who did read it.

"She said she never understood everything my sister 和 I did until she read about it," she said. “在她说完这句话之后，我想了很多. 我跟我妹妹谈过了."

What Kayzia realized is that groceries 和 creature comfort matter more now than she might like. But then she thought of the veteran she assisted 和 remembered what matters most.

“那家伙真的让我难以忘怀，”她说. “我正在做出改变."