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On
Sept. 5, 2007 current Schreiner student and Hill
Country College Fund recipient, Brenda Wallace,
described to a crowd of 400 the dramatic difference
the Hill Country College Fund grant has made in her
life and in her hopes for her children.
Thank you so much for allowing me to share my story with you all
today. I have always wanted to let someone know what this grant
means to me and my family. My name is Brenda Wallace. This fall I
will be entering my fourth semester here at Schreiner, pursuing a
teaching degree in early childhood education. My goal in writing
this speech is to give you a candid view of the impact that the Hill
Country College Fund has had on my finances, to give a glimpse into
what has been, for me, a turbulent yet awesome journey toward a
college degree.
My story is probably the same as many struggling one-parent
households. I am not a remarkable person. The only things remarkable
about me are my children, Morgan and Maya, ages six and two,
respectively. I was—and am—tired of struggling to provide for them
on my meager wages. I was tired of wishing for something better for
them, and tired of knowing that no matter how hard I wished for a
better year, it would never come unless I made the decision to do
something about it. I am a living testimony to what can happen when
a person’s desire for improvement is fueled by belief in that person
from volunteers and donors like many of you.
The household my children were born into was riddled with addiction
and abuse. I reflect on this not with malice, but with sadness,
because for a long time I was unable to see past anything except how
to survive. Sharing a detailed account is not as necessary as
relaying to you that a bruised body or mind is nothing compared to
feeling bruised inside, as a human being, because even after leaving
that frightening life behind, I was unable to free myself and my
children from a cycle of poverty and negative thinking. The reason I
share this with you today is because I know there are many capable
people out there like me, who have the desire and the purpose, but
they do not know how or where to begin.
Establishing a productive life for my kids has not been easy. Dreams
of teaching, dreams I always had, were quickly set aside for more
pressing matters: how to maintain a place to live; how to provide
food, daily; how to get to a job. College was for people who had
dreams and money. I had plenty of the former, but very little of the
latter. The only thing I had were mountains of forms to fill out for
government assistance. To this day, there are forms for Medicaid.
There are forms for food stamps. There are forms and forms and more
forms, asking very personal questions from sometimes very impersonal
people. To me, this was shameful. While I appreciated the
government’s help so much, I felt such frustration. Those mountains
of forms represented a mountain of dependence on others to provide
something I wanted to desperately to provide on my own. I often
thought about how good it would be to go to college, but who was I
kidding? How could I support these children and still go to school?
How could I even pay the tuition for one year? Who would want to
help a statistic like me?
Schreiner University not only wanted to help, they did help. Grants
like the HCCF make all the difference.
I vividly remember entering the gate for the first time and reading
a sign that said, “Enter with hope.” Every day I make the 100-mile
trek back and forth to school, I enter with hope. And I leave with
achievement. Through a combination of student loans, grants
including the HCCF, a full-time job and much love and support from
my parents, I am able to achieve my dream, one day at a time. It is
hard, but doable. People like you care enough about people like me
to give not a handout, but a helping hand. When you think of what
this grant means in terms of everyday life, it is the deciding
factor between attending class or sitting out of class that day
because I have no gas in my tank to make the drive. The guilt I face
in leaving my children every day to attend school and then go to
work is nothing compared to the guilt I once felt for having them
dependent on welfare when I knew I had the ability to achieve more
for them. Today, when I fill out any forms for assistance, I feel no
shame. Each day I am able to come to class, I am thankful for
learning the value of patience, of discipline, of persistence. Most
of all, because of donors and volunteers such as you, I have learned
the value of a kind heart and a giving spirit. For that giving
spirit, I say--Thank You.
Thank you, and know that behind every dollar raised, there is person
who is benefiting greatly. Thanks. |
