“The healthiest thing I've ever done was give myself a fresh start,” reflected Kate Dorlan.
Today, that fresh start looks like studying political science at GS and creating her non-profit Forthright, a 501(c)(4) that advocates for requiring background checks and disclosing relevant non-criminal activity in step-parent adoptions. For Dorlan, these ventures are more than aspirations. They are the way in which she is reclaiming her autonomy.
Dorlan found her way to New York City in a circuitous fashion. Growing up in Georgia, she legally separated from her family as a teen after enduring years of abuse.
“I was homeless when I graduated from high school,” she said. “I struggled for a few years trying to support myself.”
Dorlan’s first attempt at finding stability was through music school, where she received scholarships to become a professional flutist. However, this didn’t provide the structure she needed to move forward. Finally, she found the Army, where she served as a combat medic and found the most stability and support she had ever had.
Yet Dorlan found that this ultimately came at a high cost for her, as she was sexually assaulted by two soldiers in her platoon. Once more, the stability she had come to rely upon was taken out from under her, leaving her feeling aimless after an honorable discharge from the Army.
In the following years, Dorlan gained valuable insight through varying careers—observing healthy families in her work as a nanny, working in the medical field as a traveling medical assistant, and ultimately finding a love for media through her work as a multimedia consultant for an Atlanta magazine. Unfortunately, this too fell through and she realized it was time to make her biggest change yet.
“I traveled around the country with just a backpack—no cell phone,” she recalled. “I eventually settled in New York City, legally changed my name, and went back to school at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC).”
Dorlan’s experience in community college proved to be exactly what she needed to find her agency, once and for all. With the urging of BMCC’s Veterans Resource Center, she decided to apply to Columbia GS.
“What I’ve loved the most is how my time at GS and Columbia has molded me into the person I always knew I was capable of being,” Dorlan said. “I’m excited to start my next chapter.”
