2010 YWCA Women of Achievement Empowerment Award Winner: Star Hogan

Meet Star Hogan - our 2010 YWCA Women of Achievement BrickStreet Empowerment Award winner and the last in our 4-week series of blog posts leading up to this inspirational event on February 18. The BrickStreet Empowerment Award recognizes and rewards a YWCA program participant who, through great perseverance and with the help of the YWCA, overcomes obstacles and transforms her life.This year marks the 14th annual YWCA Women of Achievement Awards Luncheon, honoring the outstanding women in our community whose personal and professional achievements inspire and empower other women to strive for their highest goals.

STAR HOGAN has dreamt big all her life. Even while growing up in a Charleston housing project, she aspired to be the first in her family to graduate college, become a professional, raise a family, and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Star’s life hasn’t always been a fairy tale. During her sophomore year in college, she met the man she believed to be her “prince charming.” However, after being diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease and suspending her education indefinitely to undergo chemotherapy, Star became completely dependent on her significant other for daily support.

For the next 15 years, she withstood a relationship that was physically, emotionally, psychologically and financially abusive. In 2004, she filed a domestic violence petition and was introduced to a legal advocate from the YWCA Resolve Family Abuse Program during a child support and custody hearing. With the information and legal representation she received from the program and the encouragement and support from her friends and family, Star finally found the courage to leave her abuser once and for all. She returned to school and obtained both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mountain State University, which opened new career opportunities.

Today she works as a benefits administrator at a large financial institution and lives in a new home with her two children. She also teaches the YWCA Resolve Program’s Keys to Financial Freedom financial literacy course, which enables domestic violence survivors to fully understand their financial circumstances and helps them engage in short-term and long-term financial planning to accomplish their personal goals.