Her wish came true in fall 2004 when she began classes at Tulane University in New Orleans.

“It was great,” she says, “until the hurricanes rolled through.”

Fadeley was forced to evacuate in 2005 for Hurricane Ivan and again for Hurricane Katrina.

“I was checking the school website for spring break and saw that the school was closed, which was lucky because my flight left the next day,” Fadeley said. “I lost all my possessions, due to storm damage, and moved back home to Illinois.”

Back at home, Fadeley attended Northwestern University in Evanston, but found that the atmosphere was too different from Tulane’s.

After a semester at Northwestern, Fadeley returned to Tulane to find that the school had changed.

“It wasn’t the same school I had fallen in love with, so I decided to transfer.”

Fadeley chose Georgia College & State University. At Georgia College she changed her major from computer science to management information systems and tried to catch up on the class time she had missed.

“I was over a semester behind schedule and wanted to graduate on time,” she said.

Fadeley worked part-time at the GCSU Library & Instructional Technology Center and at Georgia Military College as a SQL/programmer assistant. She also took full course loads each semester to catch up.

Despite the busy schedule, Fadeley will graduate, on time, with an institutional GPA of 3.89 and a position in Beta Gamma Sigma. She also secured a job as a mainframe programmer at Norfolk Southern in Atlanta, which she begins in June.

“The friends I’ve made and the faculty I’ve gotten to know have made this such a beautiful experience,” she said. “They have assisted me in graduating on time and helped me land a great job. I love the people at George College and consider it my second home.”