CONWAY — JoAnne Ray of Conway said she’s put a life of drug use and prostitution behind her and will start to Central Baptist College in January after receiving a Women in Support of Hope scholarship.
Ray was surprised with the scholarship on Dec. 4.
“I still can’t believe it,” she said. “I never dreamed I’d have a scholarship.”
This is the second year for WISH Circle, an initiative to provide scholarships for CBC’s Professional Adult Career Education program, which is designed for adults already in the workforce.
It was the idea of Terry Kimbrow, CBC president. He said WISH Circle is partnering with nonprofit organizations in the community to identify women who will be “persistent” in getting their degrees through PACE and will need scholarships.
“It’s a dream, or a wish come true,” Kimbrow said.
Amy Reed, director of development for the college, said CBC has no scholarships available for PACE, which has a discounted tuition.
The initiative is about more than raising money, though. The 14 committee members will mentor women and pray for them, too, Reed said.
The first scholarship was given last year to Ashanti Wallace of Conway, a PACE student and widowed mother of two.
This year, two women received scholarships — Ray and Crystal Tucker of Little Rock, a mother of five who is in the PACE program.
“They both just rose to the top,” Reed said.
The private school will pay whatever isn’t covered by the Pell Grant that Ray received.
“She’ll basically be going to school for free,” Reed said.
Reed recalled that Ray “nearly fell off the couch” at the home of George and Jeanette Covington of Conway, where the announcement was made at a WISH Circle year-end celebration.
“JoAnne had absolutely no idea [she was getting the scholarship]. I thought she was going to fall in the floor … and just tears pouring. It was sweet.”
Ray, 42, successfully completed the first phase of Harbor Home for Women in Conway and is starting Phase 2, which means she is living in a mobile home on the grounds, working and saving money.
Her dream is to care for animals, and her plan is to major in general-education studies and transfer to UCA for a degree to be a vet tech.
In her essay for the scholarship, Ray said she wrote, in part, “I want to go to school to improve my life. I want to live for God, and I know he’s leading me to do this. I love animals.”
College was never on her radar before now.
Ray said she was raised in Illinois by her grandparents and only saw her mother on the weekends.
“I had a good childhood — normal, very structured, birthdays, sleepovers,” she said.
Ray said she didn’t go to church and knew nothing about God. Also, she was bullied by classmates.
“Going to school, I was bullied a lot. A lot of my problem was [poor] self-esteem. I wasn’t wearing what the cool kids would wear. We couldn’t afford clothes like that. I got teased because of it, the way my hair looked,” she said.
She moved to South Carolina for a year to live with her father.
“Dad got laid off at his job. … We didn’t have money to pay rent,” she said.
Her mother was already living in Arkansas, so she and her father “sold everything we had” in 2001 and moved to Hot Springs.
“My downhill spiral started when I came to Arkansas. I lost custody of my daughter, and it spiraled down from there. I didn’t care anymore. I got into prostitution, shoplifting. I’ve been to jail numerous times. I kept going around the same mulberry bush. Then something clicked. I decided I had to make a change for myself. It was do or die.”
Never married, Ray was 20 when she had her daughter, and Ray said she was in a long-term abusive relationship. She said she started using crack when she was 28 and lost custody of her daughter.
After that, Ray started prostituting herself in Hot Springs to pay for her drug habit, she said.
“I never liked it; I did it for the money.”
Sentenced to jail for two months on shoplifting charges in Garland County, Ray said, it was while she was incarcerated that someone told her about Harbor Home in Conway. Ray said she asked the judge to send her to the program, and he agreed.
Ray had been through a different rehabilitation program in 2014 and was clean for two months, she said, but she went to live with a relative who used drugs, and she relapsed.
In April, she was accepted into The Harbor Home for women, a residential Christian treatment program in Conway, and she said the program has made all the difference.
“I’m grateful for The Harbor,” she said. “There are wonderful leaders and teachers here.”
Dana Davin-Ward, co-founder and executive director of The Harbor Home, said Phase 1 is “more about healing and learning the basics; getting yourself established, rooted and grounded; discovering why have you been doing what you’ve been doing; and learning a new way to live.”
It lasts from six to nine months, she said, and women aren’t allowed to work.
In Phase 2, the women are in classes all day on Mondays, learning to budget, manage a household, how to have safe relationships and more, while they’re working.
“It’s preparing them to get out there and make it in the real world,” Davin-Ward said. “In JoAnne’s case, she never would have had a chance to go to college. Before The Harbor Home, I don’t think she thought she ever could.”
Ray agreed with Davin-Ward.
“They have been a great help to me here. I have more confidence in me than I think I’ve ever had. I’m doing things now, whereas before I’d always stay behind the scenes and not talk to anybody.”
Ray works at Stoby’s restaurant in Conway in the back as a dishwasher, but she’s training to be a hostess. Before The Harbor Home for Women program, Ray said she would never have wanted to be out front greeting people.
“It goes back to my confidence, and now I’m ready to do it,” she said.
Another positive aspect of her life is that her 22-year-old daughter, Felisha, contacted Ray.
“She called me out of the blue after 12 years,” Ray said. “She’s very smart; she was always on the honor roll, very determined.”
Ray said she wants to continue to rebuild that relationship.
“It’s like these past 16 years have been a dream; it’s like I’m waking up in reality. It’s like my life is starting over again,” Ray said.
It is her wish come true.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.