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MCC Daily Tribune

MCC Alumna Shares Her College Experiences in Memoir

Dellenna Harper, a 2009 MCC graduate, has written an empowering account of her challenging climb out of addiction and prostitution to become a dedicated, successful social worker.

She is the author of the new book God’s Teardrop: My journey of healing from addiction and prostitution, published in collaboration with Jane Sutter Brandt, owner of Sutter Communications and a former Democrat and Chronicle newsroom manager.

God’s Teardrop has been called “an emotional baptism that chronicles Dellenna’s heart-breaking journey through the cycle of addiction. However, this is not a story of unyielding trauma; instead, it offers the connective tissue of love and hope. It illustrates the beauty of God’s fulfilled promise and what happens when we are granted mercy.” (Tokeya Graham, associate professor of English)

Another of Dellenna’s former professors at MCC, Diana Robinson, wrote in part:
“I have known Dellenna for more than ten years, since she first sashayed into my classroom full of fire and sharp wit. Newly apprenticed to recovery and, with it, true honesty, it was what she also demanded from those around her. Her sharp eyes detected any attempt at bluff. The difficult questions that college instructors may occasionally try to fudge around—nope—no fudging allowed in Dellenna’s presence. (Her challenges made me a braver and clearer teacher.)”

Dellenna, a Minnesota native, was a drug addict for about 10 years and turned to prostitution to pay for her addiction. Eventually, she landed in Rochester, where she started the road to healing after being released from the Monroe County Jail and entering The Jennifer House, a women’s residential program, in 2006.
  
A year later, she enrolled in MCC (see chapters 9 and 10) while staying connected to The Jennifer House, working there full time as a case manager and eventually becoming its director. "My experience at MCC was amazing, the professors were awesome," Dellenna writes in her book. "I'm still in contact with Diana Robinson, the professor who created the alcohol chemical dependency class."

In 2009, Dellenna earned an addictions counseling degree with honors from MCC and later received a bachelor’s degree in social work from Nazareth College and a master’s from the GRC of Nazareth College and SUNY Brockport. 

In recent years, she returned to Minnesota to care for her elderly parents and is now director of Hope Harbor and Harvest Hill Programs at The Salvation Army in Minneapolis.

A copy of God’s Teardrop will be available in MCC Libraries in May. It is also available in paperback and on Kindle through Amazon, and in paperback and on Nook through Barnes and Noble.

Faculty and staff: If you are interested in having Dellenna as a speaker via Zoom, please contact Jane Sutter Brandt at <suttercommunications@gmail.com>. 

Attached Files:
Gods_Teardrop_front_cover.jpg
Dellenna_Harper_courtesy_of_Doug_Buckley.JPG

Hency Yuen-Eng
Government and Community Relations
04/20/2021