Beat The Odds

Student awarded Beat the Odds scholarship

Growing up, when she didn’t fold towels “just right,” Sommer Anderson said, her drug-addicted mother would hold her down and cut off her hair. Another time, her mother forced her to kneel on grits for hours. The pain was excruciating.

No matter what she went through, Sommer said, she stood by her mother — until she was abandoned at age 14.

“I lied to teachers and social workers, because she was my only family and, my mom said, if I left her she’d kill herself,” Sommer said. “I sacrificed so much to stay with her, and then she just walked out of my life.”

Sommer’s childhood was far from normal, and her life began a downward spiral when her mom left. But, with the help of counselors, teachers and friends, the 17-year-old Woodbridge High School student learned how to move forward.

Sommer was honored this month by Beat the Odds, a Prince William County Bar Association program.

Launched in 2001, Beat the Odds recognizes students who have come in contact with the juvenile justice system but were able to overcome obstacles and prevail academically and socially. The program is funded by the bar association and by donations and is similar to a program offered nationally by the Children’s Defense Fund , officials with the bar association said.

Students are nominated by caseworkers and others in the juvenile justice system and awarded either a scholarship or a laptop. This year, Sommer was one of 18 students recognized at the June 2 event.

Sommer was born in Woodbridge but left Virginia when she was a baby. Her mother, who Sommer said was bipolar, moved from city to city on the East Coast, showing affection one day and punishing her the next. Sommer said that she went to 13 schools in 14 years and that she spent much of her time taking care of her addicted mother.

“My entire childhood was miserable,” Sommer said. “I hated her so much, but there was something there that I couldn’t just leave her or hurt her. We moved so much, I didn’t have a chance to form a relationship with anyone else.”

When Sommer turned 14, she and her mother were living in Tennessee. She said that her mother sent her to visit her father, Richard Anderson, in Virginia for spring break. During the visit, Sommer’s mother told Sommer to never return.

Sommer began living with her father, a colonel in the Marine Corps, but the anger over her mother’s rejection got to her, she said. She began smoking marijuana and then got into “harder drugs,” she said. She shoplifted, drank and eventually got suspended from school.

Tax Preparer – How an Overseas Filer Beat the Odds of filing expat ...

The day of my life in suburban Kansas City and decided for the next 30 months to spend on something Rio de Janeiro did not regret it. I was carefree and loved to have left my American ways and embrace exciting culture. Little did I know that I still had to pay my taxes, or that foreign profits was even a feeling that my life would revolve around!. The knowledge hit me like a ton of bricks. Who has not heard from the IRS nightmares that consists of every aspect of your life out of control? I had visions of an IRS levy bank accounts and my be subject to revision control.

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The dilemma – Preparing Return

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The solution to prepare my tax misery

I hired an accountant tax. In our first meeting online, immediately all my fears to rest. I've learned that if you meet the income I have to return – even if they live abroad. He gave me a list of credits and exclusions, will qualify. It seems that after deductions, only the IRS had a minimal amount. If I do not have the money to pay my taxes, I try to compromise and negotiate a payment plan that suits me. Clearly, that would have placed a huge burden on my career and my current lifestyle, not a trip back to the U.S. state.

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