Brenda Combs - She Made It!

Brenda Combs was a homeless drug addict. Now she’s an award winning, respected teacher with two college degrees. Please take the time to watch the video. I’m not crazy about what I feel is Rick Sanchez’s tone but it’s worth enduring it to see Ms. Combs dignified reactions to his condescending questions. And it’s even more gratifying to see the dean of Grand Canyon University surprise her with the gift of a full ride scholarship for a PhD in Leadership in Education.

At the end of the interview, Rick Sanchez asks what advice she can pass along to others who are striving to make their lives better. Brenda says, “I say to them what I tell my students every day is that I believe in myself and my ability to do my best. I am intelligent and I am capable of achieving greatness, and I think that every person has inside of them what it takes to succeed, even if they need a little support.”

At 45, Brenda’s future is bright. She is a teacher at StarShine Academy, a charter school serving kindergarten to twelfth grades and recently listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. When she received her Master Degree from Grand Canyon University, First Lady Laura Bush sent personal congratulations.

Brenda is an inspiration to her students. StarShine Academy is located near the airport in Phoenix, Arizona in one of America’s most violent neighborhoods. The crackle of gunfire can be heard among the shabby stucco houses. Jacked-up cars blaring hip-hop music cruise the streets while police helicopters patrol the skies. But in Ms. Combs class there is peace and inspiration.

“Miss Brenda made me see that wherever you come from, you can do something great,” says one of her students who won a scholarship for gifted students to a Catholic high school. He says by sharing her own struggle to overcome addiction, Ms. Combs steered him away from drugs and toward his dream of becoming an architect.

She is an inspiration on so many levels. When she was homeless and addicted to crack and her shoes (her last bit of dignity) were stolen on a blistering hot day, she didn’t give up. She took stock of her life and knew that it was not her fate to sit shoeless under a bridge until she died of a drug overdose.
Of that moment in her life Combs said, "Whatever it is you want to do, whatever it is you want to be, it's up to you to make the right choice.”
She chose life for herself and contacted her family, turned herself into her probation officer and moved into a halfway house.

Twelve years and much hard work later she has the life and career she dreamed of. In the words of Rick Sanchez, “You Go Girl!”