Author: Katie Gillespie / Source: The Columbian
Skye Troy is still learning to talk about the hardest times in her life.
Being kicked out of school for doing drugs, and later arrested for stealing credit cards. Losing weight until she was all of 95 pounds, and losing her hair.
The 10 days in rehab consumed by cold sweats and chills.
“Growing up, I had to overcome so many obstacles,” she said.
Now 22 and clean for six years, Troy will celebrate the completion of another major milestone: college graduation.
The student body president will speak at today’s Washington State University Vancouver commencement ceremony, where 1,014 students will receive their diplomas. That’s a record for the Salmon Creek campus, with 28 doctoral candidates, 110 master’s candidates and 876 bachelor’s candidates graduating.
Troy will graduate with a degree in public affairs, and hopes to go to work as a government relations liaison in the fields of social justice, economic equality and women’s rights. She’s passionate for social reform at the local level, drawing from her own experience growing up in the rural Oklahoma city of Owasso to drive her.
“I felt like we were the forgotten people,” she said of her hometown.
Troy was raised…
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