I worked in the booth next to Stephanie at the Issaquah farmers market this summer. She would help me set up and break down my tent, and we would chat between customers.
Stephanie is an incredibly hard worker. From May through September, she wakes up at 4 a.m. on Saturdays to drive from her family's farm in Sunnyside, Washington, (near Yakima) over the mountains to sell produce at the Issaquah farmers market, one of several markets where her family works. She is a high school senior and manages their booth at the Issaquah market while other family members sell elsewhere around Puget Sound. When the market closes, she packs up the vegetables and tent and waits for her ride home.
In August of this year, a couple weeks before the academic year started, Stephanie asked if I could help with her cell phone, which was malfunctioning. In the course of the conversation, I learned that she writes all of her school essays on her cell phone and prints them through her email. She is one person in a very large family (I think there are 8 kids in the family), so she has learned how to meet her responsibilities within her means.
I would love for Generation Hope to provide her with own computer to do schoolwork and finish high school. When we last spoke, she said she wanted to apply for a nursing program and become a labor and delivery nurse. I can only imagine it would be easier to apply for a vocational or university program with the right technology at hand.
