Adeline’s Scholarship Story

Filling the Cracks

Adeline had barely wrapped celebrating her first birthday when her family left everything behind in Baton Rouge, La. Hurricane Katrina was barreling down on the state, leaving in its wake a path of devastation and displacing thousands of families.

Her family relocated to Alabama temporarily, then permanently to Florida, but Adeline says that “Louisiana will always be family.”

Nearly two decades later, Adeline once again calls Louisiana’s capital city home, only now as a freshman at LSU studying elementary grades education. 

Even from a young age, Adeline said she was drawn to playing school with her older siblings. Then, in high school, she was presented with an opportunity to take an early education course that allowed her to work in the school’s on-site preschool program. From there, her future was cemented.

Receiving the Mark and Lisa Boudreaux Endowed Scholarship in (college) has allowed Adeline to focus on a more hands-on approach to her education. That’s something she says will play a key role in shaping her future success as an advocate for children who are neurodivergent – a term used to describe mental or neurological function that is different than what is considered to be typical.

“There was no question in my mind that I couldn’t do it without getting scholarships. I remember reading through them, and I did some research on Mark and Lisa Boudreaux … I was like, ‘Oh, this is good. This is what I want. This is going to help get to where I want to be.’ And especially in the special education route, because that’s something that was really important to them. And I want to make my funders proud and be able to do something with their money.”

Adeline plans to focus her career on children who navigate challenges that are not necessarily documented under the special needs spectrum, like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She shared her perspective on the importance of this work, saying, “They don’t get the help they need because they’re not ‘severe’ enough. And so, I always said I want to help the kids that fall through the cracks, the kids that aren’t necessarily seen but maybe need a little extra time, a little extra help.”

Adeline hopes to open her own clinic one day. She’ll offer a holistic approach that will include everything from art therapy to physical therapy for the children, in addition to a coffee shop and a gym for the parents. 

She said of the donors who supported her scholarship, “I will forever be thankful. Knowing that I’m here and knowing that I have such a community around me and knowing that I’m going to love what I’m doing for the rest of my life is such a joy and such a fortunate thing to know at my age. None of that would have happened without them.”