MonticelloLive

Every parent knows that raising a family requires hard work; but for single parents that challenge can be overwhelming – especially if they lack the education and skills to get jobs that pay a living wage.

As a child, I learned the meaning of hard work by watching my single mother labor to support us on a waitress’s tips. It was never easy, but despite our struggles, my mother was focused on my education. She encouraged me to reach higher and try harder – to attend college and get my degree.

My story is proof that a college education is the key to a better life, but getting it requires more than just drive and commitment. It takes money. This is where the Single Parent Scholarship Fund can make all the difference.

In 1990, the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund was created to help remedy the extremely poor financial standing of single parents within our State. Since then, the ASPSF has provided nearly 20,000 scholarships, made possible by the tireless work of its board of directors and the generosity of foundations, corporations, and individuals who have donated more than $10 million to this cause.

This week, on the campus of Philander Smith College, I proclaimed March 17-21, 2008, as Single Parent Scholarship Fund Week. I met Paula Rogers, a former scholarship recipient, college graduate and working mother who explained that her scholarship gave her more than a degree. “It helped me survive,” she said, and as I listened to her speak, I wished that this opportunity had been available to my own mother.

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation funded a recent study tracking the lives of individuals who received this scholarship between 2003 and 2006. It found that 77 percent of scholarship recipients remained in school and earned their college degrees. When you compare this statistic to Arkansas’s overall college retention rate of 46.3 percent, it’s clear that this project is delivering amazing results – not only for the individuals it serves, but for our State.

The study also noted that 88 percent of the female recipients were employed full-time and that the median income for ASPSF graduates was $33,500, and that’s 14 percent higher than the median income for other female college graduates in Arkansas. Additionally, 53 percent are now homeowners, and 48 percent have earned, or are in the process of pursuing, advanced degrees.

Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship recipients are motivated – not only for themselves – but for their children, and their success is breaking a cycle of poverty that can ensnare generations. Increasing our number of college graduates is vital to the future prosperity of Arkansas, so I have instructed our state’s colleges and universities to study the success of the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund and to support its efforts with their own scholarship funding.

Victor Chasles, a Frenchman of letters, once wrote, “The sure way to miss success is to miss opportunity.” This scholarship fund is working to ensure that the single parents of Arkansas can seize their opportunities to succeed.