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September
6, 2005
DH 05 RH08
Contact: Russ Hudson,
Media Relations Coordinator
(310) 243-2455/2001
rhudson@csudh.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
CSUDH Senior Overcomes Obstacles, Mistakes, Wins Hearst
A California State University Hearst Trustee Scholarship went
to a CSU Dominguez Hills student for the third year in
a row. Senior Deidre Knighten,
public administration, who returned to school after a 20-year
hiatus that was filled with personal hardship,
was awarded the scholarship for the 2005-2006 academic year.
She was one of only 12 to win a Hearst scholarship for the
year out of the hundreds of thousands of students on the 23
campuses
in the CSU system. The Hearst, as it is usually known, is given
annually to a handful of CSU students who demonstrate financial
need, superior academic achievement, and a commitment to community
service. Hearst winners are also students who have overcome significant
personal challenges.
Knighten’s commitment to community service included finishing
the last weeks on her 10-month AmeriCorps internship. AmeriCorps
is the domestic version of the Peace Corps and provides interns
with on-the-job experience. Knighten’s internship was with
the U.S. Vet, an organization that helps military veterans with
the transition from the street back into society.
Her commitment
is also close to home. “I have a personal
history,” she says. “That’s why I have a passion
for helping. My goal after I graduate is to open a recovery home
for women, and that’s why I’m going for a degree in
public administration. I want to open a home for women who are
addicted to drugs so that they can recover from drugs and have
sober babies. And have a safe place to go, and to be nurtured.”
Knighten went
into a downward spiral when her mother suddenly collapsed and
died of a burst aneurysm in front of her, she said.
Among other things, she lost a full scholarship to UC Berkeley
in the process. Knighten said she is from a family of six children
and she, the youngest, was the only one to go through any addictions.
All of the other five “stayed sober,” she said, and
graduated from college, as have some of their children. Knighten
described herself as “pretty down and out, with no hope that
I would straighten out.” That lasted 10 years before she
came out of it, thanks, she said, to the Tarzana Treatment Center
in Signal Hill, the judge who made her go there, and the faith
in her displayed by a Los Angeles pastor.
Since then, she also won the Best and the Brightest Millenium
Momentum Award from the Millenium Momentum Foundation, Inc. for
the 2004-2005 academic year. That award was presented to her by
then-Los Angeles City Council member Antonio Villaraigosa, who
is now the mayor of L.A. This year, along with the Hearst, Knighten
won the Midway Credit Union Scholarship from the Midway Credit
Union and the Black Caucus Spouses Scholarship from the Congressional
Black Caucus.
Knighten is
scheduled to graduate from Dominguez Hills at the end of the
2006 spring semester, which is the same time her oldest
child, a daughter, is scheduled to graduate from Cal State Northridge. “She’s
my biggest fan,” Knighten said of her daughter. Knighten
has another daughter and two sons, all of whom, she says, are “smart
and they’re good kids” and all plan to go to college.
For more details, go to http://www.csudh.edu/univadv/dateline/archives/20050822/studentnews/deidreknighten.htm
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University Communications & Public Affairs
Welch Hall, B-363
1000 E. Victoria St.
Carson, CA 90747
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