Bradford Receives Psu Outstanding Adult Student Award

4-1-96
University Park, Pa.--Holly R. Bradford, a junior from East Boston majoring in administration of justice, recently received the University's 1996 Outstanding Adult Student Award. She will be honored at the Student Awards Reception Monday, April 8, at 4:30 p.m. in the Nittany Lion Inn.

Bradford has not only successfully faced the same challenges as other adult learners, she has also overcome a turbulent history of prison sentences and a former addiction to heroin and cocaine.

That addiction came to a dramatic end nearly 10 years ago when a Massachusetts judge sent Bradford to a therapeutic community called Meridian House in lieu of a 22-year prison term stemming from drug-related felonies.

Bradford is also coping with the constraints of having a teenage daughter, a tight financial budget and a diagnosed learning disability. Not many would willingly add to these pressures the demands of attending a university, but Bradford is doing just that. In fact, her success at Penn State has been so tremendous, it has earned her a spot on the dean's list and a slot in the University Scholars Program as well.

Despite her busy schedule as a mother and an honors student, Bradford has also found time to volunteer for several local rehabilitation programs. She spends 20 hours each week at a maximum security prison for women in Muncy, where she does therapeutic work with inmates. In addition, each semester Bradford talks to hundreds of Penn State students and community groups about her experiences with addiction and recovery.

Although Bradford admits that "being a 32-year-old woman with eight felony convictions, seven tattoos and a history of drug addiction" might sound like a script for a TV movie, she said she has other plans instead. After finishing at Penn State, she wants to couple her education with her knowledge of drug addicts' problems to run a drug treatment center in Massachusetts. There she plans to establish a heroin recovery program.

Professors describe Bradford as both "a devoted mother" and "a serious and committed student." Instructors also applaud her ability to deal with complex materials without getting lost in details.

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For more information contact Alan Janesch (axj12@psu.edu) or Christy Rambeau (cmr7@psu.edu) at (814)865-7517