Amanda found Greenville Literacy Association while searching online for help earning her GED. At 41, after cleaning houses since she was a teenager, she was ready for a career change.
Amanda left high school and began working at 17 after her adoptive mother passed away. Years later, she made it a priority for her own daughter to finish high school. When her daughter graduated from Fountain Inn High School in spring 2025, she turned to Amanda and said, “Mom, now it’s your turn.”
With encouragement from her daughter, husband, and the Edwards family—whom Amanda has worked for for eight years and now considers family—she took that advice to heart.
Amanda says the hardest part of earning her GED was believing in herself. “I beat myself up a lot, but I got it done.” Now, she plans to attend Greenville Technical College to become a sterile processing technician, a career that fits her attention to detail and years of experience.
Her advice to others considering a GED is simple: “It’s hard, but it’s not impossible. You have to set your mind to it.”
For Mother’s Day, Amanda’s daughter gave her a particularly meaningful gift: a photo shoot at Rock Quarry Garden where mother and daughter could finally take pictures together in their caps and gowns.