DONNA CRAIG ARTHUR

She considers herself lucky to be alive.

"A lot of my friends I went to school with -- a lot of them are dead," she explains.

School for Donna Craig Arthur -- who not so long ago was on welfare -- abruptly stopped when she was 15.

"I really loved school . . . it was hard to leave," the attractive 29-year-old woman explains.

Now a dental assistant in Drumright after completing a six-month course at Central Vo-Tech's Sapulpa campus, Arthur -- who lives near Bristow -- recalls what life was like growing up in Midwest City.

A combination of problems with her family and the school administration forced her to stop school when she was a freshman -- even though she made A's and B's.

With only an eighth grade education, she went to live with her sister in Texas.

Life was not easy.

Only a few months later she got married -- at 15.

A baby came at 16.

A string of menial jobs followed - baker, bartender, dog groomer, tool grinder, waitress, house painter.

She recalls selling blood to get money.

Then welfare followed.

"I couldn't see being on welfare the rest of my life," remarks the young woman -- who by this time had two children, a step-child and no husband.

Explaining how she feels about herself today, Donna Craig Arthur says, "When I come to work I feel like a professional -- I feel proud." The Bristow woman, who has worked as a dental assistant for the past year in Drumright, had been out of school 14 years -- when she enrolled in the medical careers program at Central Vo-Tech in Sapulpa that she says has changed her life.