She Finds a Reward for Her Fortitude

Tillie Ballinger knows what it is to struggle.

On Monday , the 64-year-old student was awarded a High Tech Center Student Achievement Award by IBM Corp. and the Community College Foundation at the Santa Monica Community College District Board of Trustees’ meeting.

One of 10 students selected statewide, she received a computer system that includes hardware, software and a chair.

Ballinger, a Los Angeles resident, left school when she was 17 years old, got married, then later raised two children as a single parent. At 40, she was stricken with crippling rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, which forced her to quit her job in the escrow department of a Los Angeles bank. For a number of years, she found herself bedridden and alone.

Despite her pain, Ballinger wanted to start a new life. About five years ago, she decided to return to the classroom and enrolled in courses at Santa Monica College. It was there that she began to fulfill a lifelong dream of completing her education and becoming a writer.

“This was something that I have always wanted to do,” Ballinger said. “I didn’t have time when I was younger because I had so many responsibilities.”

One of the first students to use the college’s High Tech Training Center, Ballinger has learned how to use a computer with the assistance of adaptive technology for students with disabilities. Because she cannot write by hand, she compensates by holding a pencil-size stick in one hand and types assignments and papers one letter at a time.

“I feel it’s been a gift, all this pain and sickness, because I’ve learned a lot,” she said. “I’ve learned there is more to life than making money--but I also got the opportunity to go to school. . . . And in the end, there’s a gift.”

During her four years at Santa Monica College, she has maintained an A-minus average.

In June, she expects to graduate from Santa Monica, and she intends to transfer to UCLA this fall as an English major. Someday, she even plans to publish some of her work.

“I hope that I am an inspiration,” she said. “I want to give light to others that you can’t just give up.”

UCLA student Neera Tanden was awarded the first Sam Law Leadership Award by the Asian Pacific Alumni of UCLA at a Nov. 17 reception held at Royce Hall on the campus.

Tanden, a senior planning to attend law school, was selected for her leadership experience, community and university service.

The $1,000 Leadership Award was established in 1990 in honor of Law, who was the first Asian-American to be elected president of UCLA Undergraduate Students Assn.

Rabbi Laurence Scheindlin, headmaster of Sinai Akiba Academy, has been elected chairman of the Principals Council of the Conservative and Reform Day Schools.

Rabbi Scheindlin has been headmaster for 16 years at Sinai Akiba in Los Angeles.