Ft Worth Times

Michele Snodderley ’13 turned her pain into her passion

Michele Snodderley needed help in the worst kind of way.

Snodderley was 21 years old when ongoing physical abuse by her partner left her no choice. She needed to escape immediately. Snodderley’s parents drove from Arizona to Missouri to pick up her and her son.

“I was very lucky because I had family and friends who were there for me,” she says. “That is the only reason I was able to finally get out of that relationship. I can’t imagine going through all that and trying to heal and put your life back together after that without having that support.”

She decided then that she wanted to pursue a career where she could help people in similar situations. The Lee’s Summit, Missouri, native has realized that goal, and she credits her education from Columbia College as a key factor in reaching it.

Utilizing knowledge she gained from her master’s degree in Criminal Justice from the Online Program, Snodderley ’13 was recently named executive director at True North of Columbia, a nonprofit organization that supports victims of domestic and sexual violence.

“This was my dream job,” she says. “I want people to know that just because you went through domestic violence, it doesn’t have to define you for the rest of your life.”

‘Why didn’t she just leave?’

Snodderley recalls being three months pregnant when her partner strangled her to the extent that she passed out and temporarily lost consciousness.

She remembers the overwhelming shame she felt in the midst of sharp pain.

“Having a child in a relationship where I was not married, I already felt like I had disappointed my family, even though they never made me feel that way,” she says. “To have to go to them and say these things are happening to me, I can remember having bruises and covering them up. I had a black eye and said, ‘Oh, my son got me with a toy.’ I would make up excuses just to hide what was really happening.”

She says the abuse began as verbal and emotional before it turned violent. By the time it was physical, she felt trapped.

“A lot of times you hear, ‘Why didn’t she just leave?’ I would walk out of therapy sessions because they would ask that,” she says. “My thing was, ‘Why didn’t he stop?’ I think that people don’t understand the abuse often starts well before that on your emotions and self-confidence.”

Fear of what would happen to her son Saige is part of what motivated Snodderley to try and stick it out — hoping that somehow, some way, someday, the abuse would end.

Saige is now 23, older than his mother was when she fled for them to have a safer future.

Original source can be found here