Bessie LeBeau

Oglala Lakota
Pine Ridge, South Dakota
38 years old
Information Technology Technician, Pine Ridge High School

My name is Bessie LeBeau. I am 38 years old and currently work as an IT Technician at Pine Ridge School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. I am married to Donnie LeBeau Jr and together we have 5 beautiful, intelligent, athletic children. I am an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. I graduated from Oglala Lakota College in 2010 with my Bachelor degree in Information Technology and one day I hope to earn my Masters in Computer Science.

I first heard about PATHSTAR from Amanda Carlow who was a past participant. I’ve known Amanda for most of my life and she was also a huge part of my daughter’s life as her high school basketball coach. The way Amanda talked about the program, with such passion and motivation, made me excited and interested. Now I want to try it. I am overweight (morbidly obese) according to the Diabetes Prevention Program ideal height/weight charts, but I’ve been trying to make lifestyle changes to help myself get to a better place with my health. Last year I joined the DPP program in hopes of making changes and losing weight. I learned a lot from participating but I feel I still need to do more. I have a strong support system in my family (who think I’m crazy for wanting to do this) but in the end I know they will support and encourage me.

The more people I talk to the more people tell me that it is an awesome opportunity and have cheered my desire to participate. I’ve recently had some hardships (a financial and emotional toll), but I’m gaining my strength and courage back day by day. I began working out in the mornings, which is very hard to do because it’s at 5:30am but being a busy mom that’s really the only time I can make for myself. I’m making small gains and pushing myself out of my comfort zone for some of the workouts we do in the gym, but realizing it will all pay off in the end is all the motivation I need. Some of the things Amanda told me about the program at first gave me anxiety just thinking about it, but the more she told, the more I wanted to learn about the program. I went to the website to learn about PATHSTAR and everything I read was the right path for helping me attain my goal of getting healthy. I’m especially excited about learning better eating/cooking habits. I grew up on bacon grease and everything deep- fat fried. So learning new ways will be the best thing for me and my family.

I’ve never been given the opportunity to be a part of something like this, so I am excited to learn and bring back that knowledge back to share with my friends, family and the community in hopes to make more people aware of the program and want to participate as well. Participating in PATHSTAR will be a huge accomplishment for me as I continue my journey to health. I want to show my children that anything is possible and make my family proud. Thank you for considering my application to participate in PATHSTAR.

Pilamayaye.