Harper breakfast to support women's program

It is an unlikely partnership to be sure, but Janet Lane of Schaumburg and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez share something in common.

They both have a vested interest in a breakfast reception Friday at Harper College.

As the keynote speaker, Alvarez is an accomplished prosecutor, and now Cook County's first Hispanic female state's attorney. She will address the audience about the rise in domestic violence in Chicago and the suburbs.

Lane, meantime, is just as influential. She is a current success story, empowered by the support and educational opportunities offered her by the Rita and John Canning Women's Program at Harper College.

"Without the Women's Program, I would not be where I am today," says Lane, who is divorced and the mother of a teenage son. "I thought I'd be in retail for the rest of my life, trying to make ends meet. I had no idea that going to college and earning a degree would be possible."

Friday's breakfast seeks donors willing to embrace that concept. Specifically, they seek 100 or more "influential women" (or men) willing to pledge $1,000 or more to the Women's Program.

Smaller gifts also are welcome, Harper officials say. Their goal is to infuse $100,000 or more into scholarships this spring. Gifts can be pledged and paid in installments over the next three years.

As of last week, Harper College Educational Foundation members had drawn more than 50 donors, but they had hoped this week to meet their goal of 100 supporters. Friday's breakfast is timed to coincide with International Women's Day and Women's History Month.

At stake is the Women's Program which supports the education and employment goals of people in economic need, who are single parents, displaced homemakers, domestic violence victims, nontraditional career-seekers, or who have limited English proficiency.

Typically, college administrators say, the program serves between 350 to 400 clients per year, nearly 70 percent of whom are domestic abuse victims.

Rita Canning, a Harper College trustee and chairman of the board of Women In Need Growing Stronger, or WINGS, will be among the breakfast's honorees. She and her husband donated $500,000 to the Women's Program last fall, and it was renamed in their honor.

"There's an added sense of urgency these days," Canning says, "and more cries for help.

"Harper's program offers women the confidence, education and resources they need," she adds, "to get back on their feet and step out on their own."

Lane was in her late 40s when one of Harper's brochures about its Women's Program arrived in her mailbox. It came at a good time. While she had worked in the past as a phlebotomist drawing blood, more recently she was working in retail, living paycheck to paycheck.

At the same time, she was trying to support her son, then a sophomore in high school, and somehow carve out a future for them both.

"I wanted to get myself back on track," says Lane, now 51. "I thought, 'I'd love to do something interesting with my life.' "

She attended an informational session, and after meeting with program counselors she enrolled in her first class that summer.

"I've been going to class (part time) every day for three years ever since," she says proudly. "But I would have never done it, never made it without the support of the Women's Program."

Since starting, Lane has made the dean's list three times, and currently holds a 3.87 grade point average. She is on track to earn her degree next spring in applied science and a certificate in medical assisting.

Once she graduates, Lane says she hopes to start out as a medical assistant, before one day managing a medical office.

"The Women's Program has given me direction, help and hope," Lane says. "They've given my life back to me."