Master's degree helps Red Elk make her mark on the world

I always wanted to be something big, go somewhere new, and make my mark on the world. Motherless at the age of six, I knew even then that I would do more things than either of my parents had the opportunity to do. It may have been because of the coaching of my grandmother and my father, or perhaps because I had a spirit that no one could break.

After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in law and society, I found myself working with convicted felons. This was my way of mending a broken heart that still had a lot of growing left to do. I thought maybe the way to make my mark on this world was to help people that face challenges just as my mother and father had. Addiction is a disease. It is because of addiction that my mother was led down a path with a man that ended up taking her life. It is because of addiction that my father ended up taking his own life in 2012.

My work with those who have suffered from addictions was not filling the void in my heart. After my father passed away, he left me some inheritance. The one and only thing that my father would want me to do with it was further my education.

I had just turned 30 years old, living a longer life than my mother had the opportunity to live. I was married with two beautiful boys. Now raising a family of my own, I was not sure how I was going to attend school, be a mother and wife, and work full-time. Then I saw ProSTAR and something just clicked. Earning my master’s degree in technology leadership and innovation would be that “something” that I have always dreamed of.

To think I could have been a statistic, growing up surrounded by things children should not even know exist. Now I am a different statistic. I am among the 8 percent of people in America with a master’s degree, and I am excited to make an impact, my mark on the world.

-- Melanie Red Elk, M.S.