BPW Scholarships: Making A Difference For Local Women

By  Kaaren Valenta

After working for years as a stockbroker and later as an active volunteer, Doreen Kelleher never dreamed she would be starting a career as a paralegal at this point in her life. Suzanne Dunn, on the other hand, has worked for years as a dental assistant, but always knew that someday she wanted to be a hygienist.

Both women were helped in their career path last year by scholarships awarded through the Newtown Business and Professional Club. BPW now has begun a search for this year’s scholarship recipients.

“I never would have been able to take the paralegal litigation certification program at this point in my life if it hadn’t been for the BPW scholarship,” Ms Kelleher, 39, said.  “I decided to get the certification so that I could help my husband, Edward, set up his own law practice.”

Doreen and Ed Kelleher met when they were both students at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Penn. After graduation, Ed started law school while Doreen moved to Washington, D.C., where she eventually landed a job as a stockbroker at Kidder Peabody and Company.

  “It was all because of a softball game – and I’m not even a good player,” she said. “I was working as a temp for Prudential Bache and playing in a softball league organized by employees of the different brokerage firms. When a job opened at Kidder Peabody, some of the guys thought of me and they contacted me.”

When Ed graduated from law school, the couple married and Doreen was transferred to New York City where she worked in corporate finance in the tax shelter department on Wall Street.

“When we got married, we picked Connecticut as a nice place to live,” Doreen said.

Tax shelters were the darling of wealthy investors at that time.

“You had to have a net worth of $1 million and earn at least $200,000 a year to use our services,” Doreen said. “When the tax laws changed around 1987, tax shelters became a thing of the past.”

Doreen then worked in Westport, where Shearson Lehman was thinking of setting up a credit advisory group. From there she helped start a brokerage firm in Bridgeport.

Then she became pregnant with her first child, Katherine, who is now 10.

“I got very ill because I had diabetes but the doctors didn’t know it,” Mrs Kelleher said.  “We moved to Newtown when Kate was eight months old. Seven months later Dylan was born.”

From that point on Doreen Kelleher was a full-time mother, involved in volunteer work. She worked on the Family Counseling Center’s annual Holiday Festival, was a VITA tax preparer, helped with the computer lab for K-2 students at Sandy Hook School, joined the Junior Woman’s Club, and served on the board of the Fairfield County Chapter of the American Diabetes Association.

“Once I started to stay home with children and the financial scene changed so much , I thought I’d be doing volunteer work for the rest of my life. I thought I  was done careerwise,”  she said.

Then Ed Kelleher decided to change the focus of his career from commercial litigation to telecommunications.

“We were getting ready to move to Washington, D.C., but Ed had started doing some pro bono work for the Family Counseling Center and he began to find out that he likes to work with small businesses and individuals,” Doreen said. “We liked Newtown so much that he finally decided to stay here and set up a practice. He does personal injury, commercial litigation, real estate closings and refinancing; wills, trusts and probate, planning and zoning, and a lot of business law, helping start-up companies and internet companies. “

To help his fledgling practice, Doreen decided she would become a paralegal.

“It was a way to help stay in Newtown and be able to continue the pro bono work he was doing,” she explained. “He has done over $12,000 worth.”

Mrs Kelleher used the BPW scholarship to pay for the 12-week certification program that she took last year.

“It is a nice new beginning,” she said. “I never thought I’d have a new career. The scholarship gave me the added incentive to pursue it. We may not have control over what happens to us in life, but we have control over how we deal with it.”

Coming At A Time Of Need

While Doreen Kelleher found herself in an unexpected new career, Suzanne Dunn has been working for years toward a degree as a dental hygienist.

In 1970 she became a certified dental assistant.

Twenty-five years ago she and her husband, Kevin, bought a house in Newtown, where their children, Kevin, 22, and Christine, 19, were born. Mr Dunn works for a custom kitchen company in New Milford, doing interior custom carpentry such as kitchens and staircases. Suzanne worked part-time at Dental Associates on Church Hill Road and three years ago enrolled in classes at Naugatuck Valley Community College.

“The Dental Associates have been great,” Mrs Dunn said. “They’ve been very understanding about my schedule so I can take classes.”

The dental hygienist program is a three-year full time course of study, and Mrs Dunn soon will have to transfer to a four-year college to complete the degree.

“I’ve been taking everything I could at Naugatuck because it is convenient and less expensive,” she said. “The University of New Haven is the closest school, but it is expensive, especially at a time when we already have two in college. Christine is a freshman in elementary education at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Kevin is a junior in video production at Middle Tennessee State University and is doing the behind-the-scenes lighting at the Emmy awards in Nashville.”

Suzanne Dunn said the BPW scholarship came at a time when she really needed it.

“Without their generosity I would not have been able to continue with school and my goal of becoming a dental hygienist,” she said. “It has been economically challenging.”

“This past semester I took two of the hardest courses and was always studying. When my husband and I had our 25th wedding anniversary he wanted to go out and celebrate, but I didn’t have the time. I’d take my books in the car when we went out. I’m a fun date,” she said, laughing.

Mrs Dunn said she manages by “only taking it a week at a time.”

“If you don’t think about it, you just keep going forward,” she said. “I’ve been going to school for almost three years now and I’m not quitting – I’m halfway there. If I can do this, so can other women, wanting to improve or change their careers. It takes determination and will power.”

How To Apply

Newtown BPW is offering $500 scholarships to two area women to help defray costs for going back to school to upgrade skills, changing careers, or seeking an advanced degree.

Applicants must be at least 25 years old and live or work in the area served by Newtown BPW; be accepted into an accredited program or course of study at a school in the United States; and have a definite plan to use the desired training to improve chances for advancement, to train for a new career, or re-enter the job market.

Applicants must prepare an essay, of no more than 250 words, stating why the scholarship is needed, and also complete an application and submit a resume of employment history.

Claudine Gellella and Evie Watts are co-chairpersons of the scholarship committee. To receive application forms, call Evie Watts at 426-5532 or write to her at 55 Hattertown Road, Newtown CT 06470. Completed applications are due by March 17. The scholarship recipients will be announced on April 3.