MARY L. COLVIN

       1998 Recipient

Mary graduated with very high grades from the Educational Opportunity Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo and entered Buffalo State College in the Fall of 1996.  She has graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems, maintaining a 3.56 GPA. Her own words best describe why she was chosen as a recipient of this scholarship:

                "You create opportunity as you turn your crises and defeats into success.

                Some people view my hardships (which include degenerative arthritis, Graves disease, legal blindness
in one eye, asthma, diabetes, a failed teenage marriage and paternal abduction of my first born child) as obstacles
that must be overcome. Instead I see these things as character builders and learning tools that can be used to help
deal with future hardships.

                I've successfully dealt with financial, physical and emotional impairments in my quest for knowledge and 
self-improvement."