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Wind Beneath My Wings Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund Helps Turn Dreams Into Reality
Words Dwain Hebda images courtesy Michelle Gilbert, Breezy Kuhl, and Jade Graves Photography
At an age when most kids are getting their driver’s license, Meya Sanders became a mom. It was just one of the conditions of her early life that seemed to steer the Memphis native into a statistical column; another child of addicts destined to a life devoid of its true potential. But where many people only viewed where she was, Meya always held in her mind where she could go. She attended community college and earned a phlebotomist degree which began a long career in health care. She felt called to care for others, be it in a clinic or on their deathbed in hospice, both of which have been stops on her professional journey. Life hasn’t always been smooth and seemingly never easy – a marriage brought her to Fort Smith; a bad divorce put her back on her own with more children to care for – but the journey has been hers. “The classes and what I’ve learned so far, it’s just joy that I did this, you know? It gives me that I-did-this-all-bymyself feeling, you know?” she says. “It gives me a sense of accomplishment. Coming out of a really bad divorce, it makes me feel so good that I was able to do this. I am happy in what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. It’s hard, don’t get me wrong; it’s so hard, but it’s rewarding.” Meya Sanders
Meya is quick to give credit where credit is due. She mentions her sister who's nearly done with a master’s degree as one source of inspiration. Her parents, now more than twenty years clean and sober and pursuing careers as drug and alcohol counselors, are another. The Almighty gets a lot of credit, too, and without question, she says, the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund (ASPSF), which has helped fund her dream into becoming a reality.
DOSOUTHMAGAZINE.COM
