GREENSBORO, N.C. — "Money was not plentiful but I had a good childhood," said Staci Regan, a UNC Greensboro student.
Regan grew up in Philadelphia with a passion for music and plans to go to college. An illness in high school kept her from pursuing her dreams.
Fast forward nearly 20 years, when a trip to the convenience store before a hurricane changed her life.
"We bought dog food and a couple bottles of Dr. Pepper," Regan said.
The receipt from buying the Dr. Pepper said to text the word "touchdown" to a phone number and win $15,000 in scholarship money to a school of your choice. Two weeks later she got a call that she had won!
"I can't believe this. I can't believe this is my luck," Regan said.
The money paid for two years at a community college. Luck struck again when that school awarded her a transfer scholarship to a four-year university.
After graduating from Bucknell University, she landed at UNCG for her master's degree.
"There's a saying in my family, 'luck is the intersection of hard work and opportunity.' I'm going to get the most that I can out of the luck that I've been given," Regan said.
Next week, she will graduate from UNCG with a master's in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
This summer, she'll continue her education as a Spartan and pursue another degree to teach English as a second language. She said the tuition has been paid for by scholarships.
She said this is all possible thanks to a little luck and a bottle of Dr. Pepper.
"It's made me so happy exploring my passions and my interests," Regan said. "I definitely wouldn't have been the person I am today, the happy, grateful person I am today without this opportunity."