Scholarship Fund Lights The Way
BENTONVILLE — As a teenager, Anita Solis knew what she wanted — to join the workforce and support herself.
Life as a waitress was just fine, she told the audience at the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Benton County Anniversary Dinner Thursday night. She had a nice place to live, fashionable clothes and a “sweet” truck.
Then Solis got pregnant — and her life changed. A month after her son was born, the 21-year-old became sole guardian of her 15-year-old brother. Now she had two children to support. She began working as a dialysis technician and a whole new world opened up.
“I worked with patients whose health depended on the treatment I was giving them. Wow. I was serving on such a higher level. I was hooked. I knew that I wanted to be a nurse.”
A coworker introduced Solis to the scholarship fund and helped her get started with college applications. As the first person in her family to attend college, the path often seemed daunting. The Successful First Year Student program at NorthWest Arkansas Community College helped her get her bearings, Solis said. So did support from the scholarship fund.
The fund has provided far more than financial aid, Solis said. It has offered her counseling services, helped her buy a computer, provided interview skills through its Street Smarts program and even helped buy Christmas presents for her son.
“The Single Parent Scholarship Fund staff is always there for me,” she said. “I can always count on them. My family gives me emotional support, but when it comes to the legwork of where to go or who to ask, they don’t know.”
Solis now is in the nursing program at the University of Arkansas.
About 500 guests attended the 23rd annual anniversary dinner at the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center in Bentonville. They applauded Solis and the other 130 students who received scholarship awards this semester. More than $188,000 was given away.
Highlights of the evening included speeches by Solis and former scholarship recipient Kim Staab. Staab is now a second-grade teacher at Jones Elementary School in Rogers. Surprise tributes were made to several longtime supporters — administrative assistant Mary Crow, media liaison Lien Nguyen and former board chairman Stephen Brown.
A special tribute to the late Helen Walton came in the form of dessert. Each guest received two cookies, in memory of Walton’s lifetime habit of baking cookies for her friends.
Building committee chairman Rich Davis said the nonprofit organization is ready to start building a new home. Housed in the United Way building for the past 10 years, the fund has raised the money it needs to build a permanent home off Airport Road.
“Hopefully, at this time next year, we’ll be celebrating the fact that we’re in our new building,” Davis said.
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Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund
www.aspsf.org
