Student Spotlight: Dominique Dobbs

Dominique is a Senior at Lincoln Park High School and is in her third year with Cabrini Connections. For as long as she can remember, people have been coming to her seeking advice. She has always enjoyed helping her friends and acquaintances work through difficult relationships, family situations or other problems. For this reason, among others, she has known since she entered high school that she wanted to be a psychologist. Since she has a profound desire to help others, particularly those like herself who have had to deal with difficult family situations such as paternal abandonment, she wants to continue her schooling and be trained to do marriage and family counseling. This desire to work with families also stems from the fact that she grew up as the second oldest of 8 children...all of whom are girls! Therefore she has lots of experience negotiating complex family dynamics which will undoubtedly be of assistance in her future career.

Recently, she’s been working with her mentor, Christine Nielsen, to figure out her postgraduate plans. Right now she is completing her personal statements and finishing up her college applications with help from our College Assistance Program counselors, Carla and Stephanie.

This year has marked a turning point for Dominique as she’s really been buckling down and concentrating on her studies so that she’s the most attractive possible applicant for college. In fact, her last report card was the first time she’d ever received all B’s, which is a testament to how hard she and her mentor have been working lately! She also was the first student to bring in a large number of report cards for our recent effort to get all our students to bring in their grade cards so we can examine the impact that involvement with our program is having on our students’ academic performance. Bringing in a whopping 7 cumulative report cards, she earned over $60 dollars for her Cabrini Connections scholarship fund as well as a free bicycle, complete with a lock and safety helmet! Because she was the first of our students to bring in her report cards, we used her example to encourage other students to do likewise.

To cope with the struggles she faces she turns to writing poetry and song lyrics as well as art, her favorite subject at school. She also enjoys going to the movies. Dominique is definitely a ‘people-person’ and for this reason, she says “The best thing about Cabrini Connections is that it’s a place to meet new people with many different personalities. At Cabrini Connections everybody connects in their own way.” Congratulations Dominique, we are glad to see that you are so motivated to succeed and we will do our best to help ensure that you achieve your goals!