Stories of Resilience
Cereatha's Story
Cereatha spent 5 years in prison. While serving her sentence, Cereatha recognized that she couldn’t control why she was incarcerated but could choose to learn from her experiences and transform her future.
Cereatha heard about the Darden program - a name she recognized as a native of Charlottesville, Virginia. She knew immediately that she wanted to apply.
What she learned
Once accepted into Darden PREP Cereatha shares, “I learned a lot about small business loans, how to budget, and math...It helped me learn a lot, especially one of the cases, Relay Foods.”
Her time in Darden PREP became more than what she was learning; “When you are behind bars, just getting and speaking with positive people, you can be having a bad day, but you think, well I know I got my class, that was always good...The MBAs were always compassionate and caring...you did not have to put your guard up.”
Cereatha was released in 2014. Home just a few days, she registered at Piedmont Virginia Community College to work towards an associate’s degree. With the financial and entrepreneurship skills she acquired through the Darden program, Cereatha continued to build on small goals in working towards her long-term goals of owning a home, a car and a small hair salon.
Today, Cereatha has a cosmetology license and works at a local hair salon while working towards her bachelor’s in Business Management. She’s used her income to provide sustainable housing for her family. And recently, she was offered a managerial position at her work.
Cereatha is proud of her accomplishments - including improving her health by losing 100 pounds. She is now working towards getting her driver's license and is working to buy a car.
Cereatha exemplifies the resilience of our students, and looks forward to helping her peers on the Resilient Professional Community. We continue to be inspired by the stories of our students we serve. Their ambition and commitment to investing in their dreams.