Bachelors

Yolanda Pettway Working Bio

I was born in San Francisco, California in 1968. When I was a child I love school and always looked forward to learning. I always sat at the front of theclass so that I would not get distracted by the other students. When I was younger I loved to play sports and pretty much hang out with the boys climbing fences and messing my legs up with bruises andscratches. I do have 6 sisters and 2 brothers. I hung out mostly with my brother because I was a tom boy.

I remember every summer we use to have to go to vacation Bible school for thewhole summer and the church would provide hot lunch for the children everyday. I had a lot of fun while going to vacation bible school. I learned a lot about the bible and how human beings are supposeto live on this earth. So I finished school up to the 8th grade. That is showing up for school, paying attention and really loving school. It seemed like once I got into the 9th grade, school wentall down hill for me. I would go but most of the time I would cut school and go have fun. What I called fun was smoking weed and drinking. So that’s what I did pretty much during my high schoolyears. I have a cousin that went to Chico State and one summer I came to Chico and I believe I was around 14 years old. She had me go to some of her classes with her so that I can get the feel of collegeI guess back then you could do that I’m not sure if we could still sit in a classroom today at Chico State.

I would have thought that would have been motivating enough for me to stayin school but it wasn’t. I had my first child at 18 years old and all I wanted to do was have a family. I wanted a husband and children. I was young and dumb and would not take any advice orinstructions from nobody because I thought I knew it all. All the years I was having baby after baby my cousin still encouraged me to go to school and get a degree. She would always say “Yolanda” you have...