Brenda Combs has been called an Ambassador of Inspiration & Achievement. However, fewer than 12 years ago, she was a homeless crack addict, a petty criminal, a gaunt and hopeless wreck who had been shot and beaten and raped during the endless years she called a freeway underpass in the worst part of Phoenix home. It was a world in which a shower and a toothbrush were beyond her means. Since pulling herself out of the gutter, she has earned bachelor and masters degrees and is working on her Ph. D. Brenda, a teacher, labors tirelessly to help kids beat the odds. Her goal is: “[To] let the world know, every human being has inside of them what it takes to be successful.” She says, “If I can do it, starting in the gutter, they can do it.” Brenda scours yard sales, spending part of her $35,000 salary on art supplies, educational games and AV equipment. She spends her evenings devising lesson plans—a math game involving pizza slices, an English unit in which students publish their own books. To make ends meet as a single mother, she holds down part-time jobs: choir director, online college instructor. And on Sundays, after church, she brings food, water and a bit of hope to those who live on the streets. |
