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Marcia Donovan-Demers

Biography

Graduate Scholarship Biography (prepared September 2005):  First named a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar in 2004 through the Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Program, Marcia Donovan-Demers decided to become a pharmacist after helping to care for a child who has bipolar disorder. "It was a long journey to arrive at the correct combination of medication that was effective for him," she recalls, "but when we did, it was wonderful to see the difference it made in the quality of his life."

Marcia's own educational dreams had repeatedly been put on hold by the demands of being a single parent to her own son and then adding three more boys to the family when she remarried. But the remarriage also gave her a supportive husband who encouraged her return to school. In 2004, when she earned her first Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship, her dreams of a career suddenly were within reach.

Professors at both Honolulu Community College (HCC), where Marcia began her college studies, and Nova Southeastern praise her dedication to learning, especially given her demanding family responsibilities. At HCC, she was awarded a scholarship for military spouses, and became an active member of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges. Now she looks forward to establishing her career as a pharmacist in time to help her own children through college so that their dreams do not have to wait as hers once did.

Undergraduate Scholarship Biography (prepared May 2004):  Ms. Donovan-Demers has been fascinated by the anatomy and physiology of the human body since she was a child, listing biology and chemistry as her favorite school subjects in her native Jamaica. She followed her interest into work as a specimen processor for a pharmaceutical laboratory and later as a research aide in cell biology for a cancer research institute. While she thought about being a doctor, she said, she could not reconcile the long, unpredictable working schedule with her desire to spend more time with her family. Therefore, she settled on pharmacy as an alternative that would make use of her scientific background and still give her more control over her working hours.

Marcia went back to school at the age of 44 and earned a 3.9 grade point average and membership in Phi Theta Kappa honor society and the National Dean's List. She helped develop a campus health survey, analyze the data, and write a report. Ms. Donovan-Demers also assisted in feeding homeless persons. Her teachers and advisers were enthusiastic about her work habits and her commitment to go beyond the minimum requirements to master more complex problems and issues. One teacher said she missed only one day of school in three semesters and that absence was due to car trouble.

Marcia's life changed when she met her husband, a divorced man with custody of three boys. Although wary at first of taking on new family responsibilities, they were married in 2001. "It is because of his support that I am back in school pursuing my dreams," she says. "Yes, it has been challenging raising four children and working hard at being an effective parent but, if I had to do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat."

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