Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society is committed to supporting adult learners access to higher education by awarding scholarships each year. Many university scholarship programs are not oriented toward adult students, forcing adult learners to seek out loans, or are often forced to work multiple jobs so that they can provide for their families while pursuing their degree. Learn more about two nontraditional students who were recently awarded a scholarship from Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Iris has lived in the Philadelphia area for over twenty years. One of her biggest passions is helping others, which she has done through both her work and as a volunteer. She is a wife and the proud mother of three adult sons.

For the past fourteen years, she has worked with an agency that provides mental health services for children. Iris is currently enrolled at Chestnut Hill College and is working on a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services with a minor in Psychology.

Her goal is to go on to earn a Master’s Degree in Human Services. Upon completing her formal education, Iris wishes to work in the mental health field, working specifically with the underserved Spanish-speaking population.

Scott is in the process of reinventing himself. He has gotten sober, divorced, and has left a dead-end job in New York City to move out to Long Island to attend Stony Brook University. Scott has been a government worker, a paralegal, and an actor. He has traveled to Norway as a foreign-exchange student, worked for a summer in Yellowstone National Park, even traveled across the U.S. and Canada competing as a bagpiper in various highland games. Scott hopes to gather up all these life experiences, mix them up with his wild and vivid imagination, and recreate himself as a novelist.

Currently, Scott is an English Major at Stony Brook, a student in the English Department’s Honors Program and is Treasurer for Alpha Nu Zeta, the local chapter of the International English Honors Society, and a member of Alpha Sigma Lambda Honors Society.

Scott never finished college when he was younger. Now, at 47-years-old, he is grateful not only for the opportunity to finish something he started, but to do something he loves.