Spotlight on 4 Live Your Dream Awardees

September 8, 2021, Vista, CA–If the past year has taught us anything, focusing on positive actions and forward momentum is essential as we slowly emerge from the strange anti-social cocoon forced upon all of us. There is no better time than now to introduce a few of the women who are currently pursuing higher education to better the lives of themselves and their children during this global pandemic. The Live Your Dream Awards were created for this very purpose, to help support these courageous women to make a difference in this world by empowering them to be the best possible versions of themselves.

This year, the club has raised over $21,000 to award seven women, giving them a much-deserved opportunity to improve their lives through further education. With funding and support from our Soroptimist club, the women can utilize the awards for food, rent, bills, travel, tuition, or in any other way that will help them along the path to ultimately achieving their dream jobs and inspiring other women in the process.

For many of these women, the Live Your Dream Award is a lifeline, becoming instrumental in stopping the perpetuating toxic cycle of abuse, neglect, or addiction that could have otherwise led them down a darker path. Situations often experienced by young mothers struggling to support themselves can include being abused or abandoned by a partner, suffering with mental health or addictions, or being forced into risky situations against their will have become all too common, which is why Soroptomist is dedicated to improve the lives of women in the community and around the world.

This month there are four Live Your Dream Awardees we would like to celebrate. Each is a positive, strong, brave, independent woman who has worked hard to make impressive progress in her personal and professional lifes. All are stars and serve as shining examples to us all.

Anissa Florie is a young, vibrant single mother of a four year old son named Elisha. She is currently studying at Palomar College working towards an Associate’s Degree in Sociology. She plans on transferring to Cal State San Marcos to finish her masters degree in Social Work to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

Anissa is passionate about helping others and has earned a certificate to assist people struggling with mental health or addiction issues. She cares deeply about positively impacting other women and using her own personal experience to support and inspire them to heal and transform into strong, capable women.

Stephanie Cagle was born in Puerto Vallarta and had an adventurous childhood, calling a sailboat home and writing in her journal while traversing the ocean with her parents and sister for eight years.

Her family eventually settled in San Diego where she attended High Tech High and published a book under the Jane Goodall Foundation. She has a four-year-old son named Vincent and is almost finished earning dual associate’s degrees in Sociology and Psychology at Palomar College. She is moving to Virginia at the beginning of next year and will apply to Old Dominion University to continue her studies so she can make a positive impact as a child psychologist or therapist.

Rochelle is a married mom of three boys, Benjamin, Emillio, and Lorenzo and one girl, Ariel. She attended MiraCosta College and gained an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts. She is currently enrolled at Cal State San Marcos working toward her Bachelors in Sociology.

Rochelle is very interested in public policy and wants to be a teacher working in the juvenile justice system so she can make a difference in turning the lives of young offenders around through education and mentoring. Rochelle enjoys organizing, planning and photographing events on the weekends and uses her social media marketing skills to help her husband with a small business selling recycled copper rose sculptures.

Xochitl Dybbro has a dream of becoming a surgical tech and continuing her education in Seattle after she finishes her Bachelor’s degree. She has a daughter Izel, who is four, and she helps support her mother and brother, who suffers with non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis and is awaiting a transplant and lives with the autoimmune condition Lupus.

Xochitl attended Palomar College and is transferring to Cal State San Marcos to major in Social Justice and minor in Border Studies. She is interested in gaining a certificate remotely from the Native American Women’s Resource Center in Montana in helping people at the border.