Adult programs help many achieve dreams

She saved a man's life.

She traveled to Russia to adopt her daughter.

She left a banking career and $60,000 salary to become a teacher.        

Her name is Sylvia Foulkes, and she's a Viterbo V-Hawk.

Foulkes is a single mother of two from Fall River, Wis., northeast of Madison.  She is currently attending Viterbo to gain teaching licensure in business education. As a student in the Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Licensure Program, she began classes at Viterbo in May 2009 and will finish student-teaching next June.    

Her experience at Viterbo has been marked with challenges, obstacles, and even tragedy, but Foulkes hasn't given up on her goal of becoming a teacher.  

"I wanted to be a business education teacher because I did well in business class in high school, and my teacher, Mrs. Hoffman, was a role model for me because of her personal attention and encouragement with students," Foulkes said.  "I wanted a better fit to my life.  I wanted to be happy.  And most of all, I wanted to make a difference in a child's life, just through my encouraging words."             

Since May, Foulkes has made the three-hour commute (one-way) from Fall River to La Crosse.  Betty Pfaff, coordinator of the PBTL program, told Lumen that Foulkes has the longest commute in the history of the program.

Foulkes rents out a room in La Crosse so that she can arrive in time for class on Tuesday, stay until class on Thursday and drive back home to Fall River on Friday mornings. While she's in La Crosse, her sisters help to watch over her children back home.  

The commute has been one of many challenges for Foulkes.  She joined the program through the encouragement of her mother, who vowed to support Foulkes financially as well as emotionally.   

But in May 2009, just a few weeks into the PBTL program, her mother passed away from a seven-month battle with leukemia.   

Just before her mother died, Foulkes found out that she, too, had cancer. In July 2009, when Foulkes was in surgery to have a cancerous tumor removed, the doctors found skin cancer as well. This was also removed later in the summer. 

"I'm anxiously awaiting my check-up in December," Foulkes said. Then, she'll know if the cancer is still gone.

"I only missed one this summer, and it was because I threw my back out getting groceries," she said, shaking her head.