#PeopleofPortHuron: Audrey Sochor, helping residents attain their goals

Port Huron is evolving, here are some of the people shaping its future.
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Audrey Sochor says she has found her home in St. Clair County. A Blue Water area native, she headed to the Grand Rapids area for college, but found her way back home. After working as a server for a while, she joined the Blue Water Young Professionals, who shared a job opening at the Community Foundation with her, and the rest, as they say, is history. While starting as an assistant to the executive director, Audrey has climbed the ladder quickly, and is now a program officer for the foundation. Her job is to handle anything and everything scholarship related, including high school students looking for monies, the Come Home Award and the Complete Your Degree Program. Complete Your Degree is one of the biggest, but most rewarding, programs she handles. It's a multi-year support program for people who are looking to finish a degree, but have been detoured by life. If approved, the scholarship will cover life expenses, and financial barriers that can keep a student from finishing their degree. "We try to help alleviate those financial barriers," Programs like this benefit the community in many ways, she says, by helping a family increase their income and invest in themselves. "I love being able to make a difference in these people's lives, and help support them to see it through. "It really resonates with me." When see their goals come to fruition just exciting to me. One of the things she loves about the Blue Water area is just how supportive it is, and how everyone works together for the betterment of the area. Now she's a strong part of that community. "I've always been a quiet person, but coming back and joining [Blue Water Young Professionals] helped me realize how much I love community service and just being involved. When she's not working, she's keeps herself busy reading, volunteering, spending time with her friends downtown at businesses like Casey's and the coffeeshops, as well as traveling across the U.S. and internationally. #PeopleofPortHuron #travel #downtownPortHuron #scholarships #completeyourdegree #BlueWaterarea #CommunityFoundation #differencemaker

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