After high school, she enrolled in Glassboro State College. There, she worked for both the college's newspaper and magazine. While at Glassboro, she also began publishing stories and poems in various publications, including Dan DeBono's Gareth Blackmore's Unusual Tales, Happiness Magazine, Lucidity, Black Bough, and The New Jersey Review of Literature. Dawson graduated from Glassboro State College in 1993.