Massey winner’s biggest prize: being a mom

“The doctor said, ‘There’s no reason why you can’t get pregnant, but I never did. I was 41 when I decided to just go and adopt. It took two years of heartache and a lot of crying, but it finally happened.”

Faydene Alston got a baby girl, not quite a month old, and gave her a name that matched the way she felt about her the first time she held her in her arms: Precious.

Alston, a housekeeper at the UNC Kenan-Flagler School of Business, has since received her GED and is pursuing a degree in early childhood development so that she can be better positioned to care for her daughter. That dedication earned her a C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award. The privately endowed award is one of the most coveted distinctions the University gives faculty and staff.

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