WISH granted

New CBC women’s initiative gives scholarship

Ashanti Wallace stands in the Conway Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic, where she works, at Conway Regional Medical Center. Wallace, a widowed mother of two, is enrolled in the Professional Adult College Education program. Wallace is the first recipient of a $10,000 scholarship through the newly formed CBC Women in Support of Hope Circle, which works with nonprofit organizations to help identify women who would benefit from the PACE program. WISH Circle also offers mentorships and supports women with prayer.
Ashanti Wallace stands in the Conway Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic, where she works, at Conway Regional Medical Center. Wallace, a widowed mother of two, is enrolled in the Professional Adult College Education program. Wallace is the first recipient of a $10,000 scholarship through the newly formed CBC Women in Support of Hope Circle, which works with nonprofit organizations to help identify women who would benefit from the PACE program. WISH Circle also offers mentorships and supports women with prayer.

Ashanti Wallace said she almost fell to her knees when she was presented with $10,000, the first scholarship awarded by the new Women in Support of Hope Circle at Central Baptist College in Conway.

“My daughter had to hold me up,” Wallace said.

Wallace, 38, is used to being the strong one. A widow and a mother of two, she’s worked as many as three jobs at a time to help support her family and pay for her tuition for CBC’s Professional Adult College Education, or PACE program, which is designed for working adults.

The $10,000 will pay for her last two semesters.

“That’s a real blessing. Things like that don’t happen to me,” Wallace said. “Every time I think I’m on top of things, I feel like somebody’s knocking me back. Every time I feel like I’ve taken two steps forward, I feel like somebody’s knocked me 10 steps back.”

Her husband, Corey Wallace, was 32 when he died of cancer in 2011. He was also enrolled in the PACE program and was close to graduating when he died. The couple have two children, Courtney, 15, and Amaurey, 11.

Wallace said she tried to go back to CBC after Corey died, but she couldn’t focus. She had medical bills and needed to take care of their children, and she defaulted on her $32,000 in student loans.

“I had to work extra hard to get my loans out of default,” she said. She worked to get a percentage paid off and was re-enrolled into the PACE program in January.

She said one of her instructors, Rachel Steele, told her about WISH Circle, the women’s initiative that raises money for scholarships for PACE students. Steele asked Wallace if she’d come speak Nov. 9. at the initiative’s launch.

“I just thought I was there to tell my story and thought they were going to ask for donations toward a scholarship,” Wallace said. “I was so, so surprised.”

Amy Reed, annual fund officer at CBC, said the women’s initiative is designed to raise money for PACE students because the college doesn’t offer scholarships for the program. WISH Circle also includes mentorships and a prayer circle.

“It’s all about supporting women,” she said.

Reed said CBC President Terry Kimbrow has talked about starting a women’s initiative for years. WISH Circle is working with nonprofit organizations to help identify women who could benefit from the PACE program, Reed said.

Wallace qualified for financial assistance for college, but it wasn’t enough to cover her tuition, and she received GI Bill benefits, which she used to cover the cost of her books.

“When I started back in PACE this year, I had used up my GI Bill benefits,” she said.

Wallace grew up in California and joined the Navy at 19, which was a goal inspired by an aunt of hers in the military. Wallace met her husband, whose hometown was Lake Village, when they were stationed on the same ship.

They moved to Conway in 2000 when they finished their enlistment, and both enrolled in the PACE program. Her major is psychology; he was working at IC Corp. in

Conway and majoring in business because he had a dream of opening his own auto-detailing business, she said.

Corey Wallace was 24 when he found out he had liver cancer, and he had a liver transplant in 2005. However, the cancer was later found in his lungs.

“He got a transplant in 2005, right before I had my son,” Ashanti Wallace said. “I said, ‘You have to have a legacy.’ I knew it was going to be a boy. I had already prayed about it. I knew what he was going to look like and everything. My husband was hesitant, being off work. He hated the fact I was having to pick up other jobs.”

Medical bills and major vehicle repairs contributed to the couple declaring bankruptcy, she said.

Wallace has done a little bit of everything to make ends meet, including working at fast-food restaurants. When the couple moved to Conway, she earned her certified nursing assistant’s license and worked for three years at a nursing home. Then she became a phlebotomist at Conway Regional Medical Center, working in the emergency room, the hospital and the lab. She now works for a company based in Nashville and draws blood for the Conway OB-GYN Clinic at the hospital.

Wallace also works for the apartment complex in which she lives, painting and cleaning apartments when tenants move out to earn extra money and get reduced rent.

At one time, she was also a housekeeper at a nursing home, but she was able to end that, thanks to her apartment job. Her mother moved to Conway a year ago but doesn’t drive, so Wallace takes her to work — sometimes at 5 a.m. — and picks her up after a shift — sometimes as late as 9 p.m.

Lori Melton, chairwoman of the WISH Steering Committee, said Wallace told her story of working against all odds to get her degree, sleeping only three or four hours a night.

“At the end, we prayed for her; then Terry Kimbrow gave her $10,000,” Melton said. “It was just this moment. Everybody was just bawling. That pays for her final year of school.”

Kimbrow said, “It was quite an emotional experience for everybody.”

Wallace’s 15-year-old daughter, Courtney, attended the WISH Circle launch, too, and talked about her mother.

“She did better than I did speaking,” Wallace said. “She said she was very proud of me and that she loved me and that I make her a better person. That was just uplifting. When she was little, she told me she wanted to be just like me, and I said, ‘No, you need to be better than me; you need to go

past me.’”

Wallace said she wants to continue to stay involved with WISH Circle. She is scheduled to graduate in December 2018 and plans to go to graduate school.

“I want to get my master’s in counseling or social work. I really would like to work in case management. I see so many elderly who just don’t have a voice, and they need someone to speak for them,” she said.

The $10,000 scholarship has eased her worries, but it hasn’t ended them.

“I’m always trying to figure out which bill to pay,” Wallace said. “I’m having a hard time now, but the Bible says God says we’re to endure trials and tribulations. I am to labor; I am to work; I’m supposed to work as hard as I do. It’s only natural to worry; it’s only human nature. God has my back, and he’s going to take care of me.”

Wallace said she wants to host a WISH Circle meeting and help raise awareness that help is available.

“I want to bring attention to it and help other people so they don’t have to struggle like I did,” she said.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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