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Scholar Stories: Joyce Jernigan

Joyce Jernigan loved the time that she spent taking care of children at a local daycare. The work situation that she enjoyed so much ended when her day care closed for good, and she found herself without a job and with many financial worries.

Her determination to work with children and to serve as a role model to her own son led her to pursue an associate degree in child care from Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina. She previously earned her GED from Wayne and now wanted to focus on a new goal – preparing to become an elementary school teacher.

It was not an easy decision. As a single parent, she faced many challenges – including significant financial hurdles. “I just decided it was time for a change, and I wanted to go back for me and for my son,” she says.

Jernigan started working in childcare after she tragically lost her 19-year-old daughter in a car accident at the hands of a drunk driver. “It just filled a big void in my life,” she says. “The children are so eager to learn and so true. I really learn from them, as much as I hope they learn from me.”

As she works toward her degree, the financial hurdles remain difficult ones for Jernigan. One day, she visited the student services office at the college. “I didn’t have enough gas in my car to get to school the next day,” she says.

Fortunately for Jernigan, Wayne Community College was participating in the Dreamkeepers Emergency Financial Aid pilot program that focused on providing emergency financial assistance to students. As a result, the college was able to offer her emergency support in this case, as well as a grant to help repair her car when it broke down.

“I don’t know what I would have done if it had not been there for me,” she says. “I knew that I didn’t want to quit, but there were time I just didn’t know what I was going to do. It allowed me to keep coming to school.”

Jernigan looks forward to the day that she graduates. When she receives her associate degree, she will be able to work as a teaching assistant in an elementary school. “I will probably cry like a baby when I cross the stage,” she says.

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