Fulfilling the Dream - Brenda Jones

Brenda Jones' parents never told her directly that she should go to college, but she knew her mother often wondered how her life might have turned out differently had she gone on to further her education.

Growing up in a small rural community in southwest Arkansas called Falcon, where children were bussed 20 miles or so to school in Rosston, Arkansas, Jones never thought about going to college. Her parents were from very poor families, and her mother was one of seven children being raised by a single mom.

"My mom had to miss a lot of school because they had to work and help my grandmother. … She had to miss weeks, even months of school because they had to go to the fields or to the woods. I remember her talking about having to use a big cross-cut saw and cut those trees down, cut that wood up, stack it on the wagon, and then go home with it because they did not have a dad to do it," Jones said.

"We were on the poverty side ourselves. My dad was a logger and my mom worked in a furniture factory where she built couches and chairs," she continued, but her dad didn't work in winter and there was no unemployment so her mom was the main breadwinner in those months.

"I heard my mom talk about how she wished she had gone on in school and furthered her education," Jones said. "She said if she had decided to go on to school, maybe our lives would have been better."

Jones said she and her three sisters also had to work hard, even as children. "We had to chop wood, we had to get the wood in, we had to mow the yard. When summer came, we were in the garden until dark," she recalled.

"We didn't have very many clothes; my sister and I shared clothes. We shared a bedroom and a bed," Jones said, explaining she and her older sister slept in one bed, while the other two sisters shared another bed, but both beds and all four girls were in the same room.

Summers were spent in the pea fields, and the money they earned went to school supplies and household items they needed.

"I just didn't see college at all in my future, but I said I've got to do something in order to make it better for my family," Jones said, explaining she never had a dream about being anything in particular when she grew up.

"I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do. Actually, I did not like school at all. I really didn't want to go to school."

Although her school was small, with just 25 to 30 students in her class, Jones remembers her homeroom teacher, Joyce Randall, as having an impact. Jones said some of the teachers "didn't seem to care whether the kids got an education or not," but Randall was different.

"She pushed us to achieve higher than what we were expecting of ourselves. She expected more of us because she knew we could do it."

After high school, Jones went to work at a nursing home and did that for several years before going to Little Rock to Job Corps, a training program for young people who had graduated high school.

She decided on business as a trade because it looked like a good field that would have room for advancement, but it wasn't necessarily her passion.

When her kids were born, Jones made the decision to be a stay-at-home mom. "I wanted to get all of my children in school before I started to do something for myself."

In 2000, her husband was laid off from his job at a restaurant furniture plant when the company shut down, and they moved to Batesville, where his family resided.

"We moved here and I got pulled over by two cops for driving at night on Harrison Street without my (head)lights on. … We had lived in the deep country, so we didn't have street lights," she said, laughing. "It was just so bright here."

As their four kids grew older and started school, Jones eventually went back to work, getting a job with an after-school program.

That was in 2003, and Jones said she started taking business classes at UACCB and earned an associate of applied science degree in business services with a focus in administrative services in 2005.

Jones, who is also very active in her church, said there were times it was a struggle to balance her home life with work, college and other activities. She took some of her classes online and found she really enjoyed those, but she still had to set aside time at night to study.

"I'd do my homework at night, then get up and do it all over the next day," she said with a laugh.

And she found she no longer disliked school – quite the opposite, in fact.

"I had adrenaline to do it then because I wanted to achieve something for myself."

After three years of working in the after-school program, the preschool director approached Jones about working with younger students, and Jones said yes and started teaching in a 3-year-old classroom. She said she would need a CDA or higher degree to teach, however.

Once again, she turned to UACCB, where she earned an AAS in early childhood education in 2007.

Jones, who now has a total of 20 years at the school, said she couldn't really explain why, but she felt drawn to education in a way she had not been with business.

"It just all fell into place and it was like that was where I needed to be," Jones said.

Jones said she tried to instill the importance of education in all of her kids, especially her daughters. "I told them even if you get married, don't expect your husband to take care of you. You never know what's going to happen in life, so prepare yourself. Get an education so you are able to support yourself."

Jones even got to walk across the stage and graduate with her second daughter, Natasha, and that was a wonderful and amazing experience, Jones said. Natasha went on to eventually attain her master's degree and is a family and marriage therapist.

Her oldest daughter, Brenisha, had started UACCB in 2000. After graduation, she went on to Lyon College and then Arkansas Tech in Russellville, and now has two master's degrees and is currently in school again.

Youngest daughter Asha has also graduated college with a licensed practical nursing degree and plans to eventually obtain a bachelor of science in nursing. Jones' son Joe also started college but has not finished yet.

Jones is quick to give credit to God for bringing her to this point in her life. "There will be struggles, there will be hard times, but there is nothing that's too hard for God, and with God all things are possible.

"Anything you set your mind to, you can do it. The journey may be long, the journey may be hard, but if you put God first in everything you do, and you may go through some obstacles in life – press forward and you can achieve anything you want to achieve."

She said she is thankful for everyone who supported her and encouraged her along the way.

"UACCB is a great place to start your future, but you don't have to stop there. Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream. This speech has a great impact on many lives. Everyone can dream, but it's what you do with the dream that determines your future."

By Andrea Bruner

Editor’s Note: In honor of Black History Month, the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville would like to highlight some of its outstanding students and their successes. This is the first in a two-part series.