Caprice Morales, a student in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, received the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning’s Learner of the Year Award. (DePaul University/Randall Spriggs)From maintaining a community garden to putting her DePaul education into practice with the Chicago Police Department, Caprice Morales strives to better the lives of those around her. In the fall, Morales, a student in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, received the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning’s Learner of the Year Award. The nonprofit recognized Morales for overcoming significant obstacles and successfully returning to higher education to pursue a degree.
“I always dreamed of helping people,” says Morales, who has focused her undergraduate SCPS studies on urban family science. “I place attention on people at high risk of poverty, unemployment and lack of education. There were people who broke those barriers for me—who inspired and encouraged me. I hope I can do the same for the next person.”
Derise Tolliver, Morales’ close mentor and professor emerita in SCPS, nominated Morales for the award.
“I knew she was the perfect candidate,” Tolliver says. “She has faced many hardships in her life, but her story is more about her enthusiasm, determination and perseverance in the pursuit of education. Caprice sees herself as a model of success for people who have often been told they couldn’t make it.”
After surviving drug addiction, sexual abuse and domestic violence, and spending time in prison, Morales believes everything she experienced inspired her to become a “beacon of hope” in urban communities today. It all started when she spoke up while incarcerated at a minimum-security prison in Kankakee, Ill.
“I noticed some members of the administration had inappropriate relations with detainees, so I reported it,” Morales says. “The warden put the guilty administrative staff members under investigation, and eventually they were terminated. That was a turning point; that’s when I learned I could be a leader.”
In an effort to better understand the challenges of urban communities, Morales obtained her high school diploma and enrolled at Malcom X College. She received an associate of arts in sociology degree and expects to complete her bachelor’s degree at DePaul this spring.
Morales’ experience at DePaul’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies has inspired her to be more involved in her community.
“I work with Chicago’s 15th district police department to organize job fairs,” she says. “I also do outreach with the Good Neighbors Campaign in the Austin neighborhood to unite and strengthen the community.”
Morales even purchased a plot of land near her home and grows vegetables to share with elderly community members.
Once she earns her bachelor’s degree, Morales intends to pursue master’s and doctorate degrees. She also is in the early stages of writing a book about her life path.
“I now see the persecuted person and ask ‘where have they been?’” she says. “They can’t feed their kid because they can’t get a job, but the job they need has criteria they cannot meet because they need an education they weren’t afforded.”
Morales credits her success to a large degree to her grandmother, her three children, and the faculty and staff at Malcom X College and DePaul.
“When a person has made many mistakes, their destiny is not denied, it’s only delayed,” she says.