I read your book. It was wonderful. Congratulations! --Melodye Levey
My girlfriend Rhonda Sciortino has written a book "From Foster Care to Millionaire"! I suggest everyone buy a copy, she is the real thing and has helped so many children that are abused and abandoned! A real doll!!! --Pamela Cutchlow-Brooks, CEO Orange County Children s Foundation
I read your book. It was wonderful. Congratulations! --Melodye Levey
Rhonda was a ward of the court from 6 months old until she emancipated at age 16.
She began working in the insurance industry at 15, became California's youngest licensed insurance agent when she was 17, and opened her own insurance brokerage when she was 27. In 1989, her company was the first and only insurance organization in the United States founded solely to protect people and organizations that care for abused children.
Rhonda's advocacy of child caring organizations eventually led to insurance premium rating changes that saved millions of dollars annually for child welfare organizations throughout the US. Today Child Welfare Insurance Services protects child welfare organizations and helps prevent injuries and deaths of children in out-of-home placement.
Rhonda is a passionate child advocate. Through her books and speaking, she hopes to
1. Encourage people living with abuse or other disadvantages to know that someone like them made it out of the abuse and they can too.
2. Encourage people who work with hurting kids and broken families that what they do and say does have a positive influence even though they often don't get to see the final outcome.
3. Show that we all create our own outcomes-good or bad- with the choices we make.
4. Help people intentionally create a great life by teaching them what works, including helping them identify and refine or get rid of the coping mechanisms used to deal with past dysfunction that damage good relationships.
5. Show that there are lots of ways to have a great life other than what kids typically categorize as success, like being a professional athlete, actor, musician, celebrity of some sort, professional gambler, or some other unlikely career.
6. Raise awareness in the general public that all people who have been abused do not turn out to be criminals, child abusers, or dysfunctional in relationships. In fact, former foster kids and other survivors of abuse are everywhere. We are business owners, attorneys, physicians, contractors, judges, escrow officers, insurance brokers, executives, and in every other line of work you can think of. We are your co-workers and neighbors, and could wind up marrying into your family!
Rhonda hopes that readers who have been hurt by a person who came from a dysfunctional family will come away with a better understanding of why that person hurt them, and perhaps more importantly, that the person who caused the hurt can change. Radical, dramatic, life altering personality change can, and does, happen. Rhonda says she's proof of it.
Finally, Rhonda hopes that foster kids and emancipated youth will use the book and the accompanying workbook to learn work ethic, character building, and money management. She knows first hand that an earned paycheck will help develop dignity and self-esteem like nothing else will.
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