Angela Owens: A Student Story by Jose Alvarado

Special to the Cape Charles Mirror by Jose Alavardo. Jose is a full-time student at Eastern Shore Community College. He also works 35+ hours a week in the college maintenance department. When he graduates from the community college, he plans to attend Old Dominion University and major in Health Services Administration. He is also interested in journalism and hopes to write for newspapers and magazines in the future.

Sometimes to reach our destination, we have to sacrifice and accept a few detours along the way. This simple truth is especially true for Angela Owens, who put off her own dreams so that others could realize theirs.

Angela Owens was born in Cape Charles in 1972, but she moved to Portsmouth, Virginia, where she attended school, graduated from Craddock High School and lived for 21 years.

After a fire tragically destroyed her home, she moved back to the Shore in 2000. She worked at the Sunset Beach Inn as a housekeeper and was also a cashier at the Shore Stop in Eastville. For the last 15 years she has been working as a Personal Care Assistant (PCA).

Angela is not just a hard worker, she is also the proud mother of three children. Love and education were always her top priorities as a single parent. All of her children graduated from Northampton High School. However, a high school diploma was not enough for Angela or her children. She made sure that all three attended college. Her oldest son, Adairius Williams, attended Virginia State University and graduated in 2012. He is now a 5th grade teacher in Carrolton, VA. Her daughter Keishalia Williams followed in her brother’s footsteps and is now a junior at Virginia State University. She is studying Business Administration. And her youngest son, Jovoski Williams, is a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is studying anaesthesiology.

In 2007 Angela Owens wanted to return to school and enrolled at Eastern Shore Community College. However she found the realities of being a single mother, working full-time and trying to go back to college were just too much, so she put aside her dreams until her children’s futures were secure.

But now she says, “It’s my turn.” She has enrolled once again at Eastern Shore Community College. She wants first to get her Long-Term Care Assistant certificate and then her Licensed Practical Nurse degree. “The community college has been great,” she says. “The people, especially the faculty, make me want to learn and come to school. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. At first I was worried that I had been out of school too long, but that wasn’t the case at all. I love it here and I feel that I fit right in,” she says. “I think everyone who put their education off for a while, for whatever reason should think about going back to school. If I can do it, anyone can.”