Fall commencement ceremonies were held Thursday at the Jack Stephens Center and streamed live on UALR’s commencement webpage.

Registrar Joyce Hail said 936 students applied to graduate this semester. Last December, UALR graduated 598 students in the fall, with 402 students participating in the Stephens Center procession last December.

Each UALR graduate has a unique story to tell. Here are just a few of some of their inspiring stories:

•  Jana Villemez – a full-time wife, mother, and daughter of elderly parents – will receive her master of social work degree, despite “real life” obstacles that would make most people throw in the towel. She faced economic hardships, fear of a husband’s layoff, a mother with dementia, and the sudden death of her father, but she was able to persevere.

  “Thankfully, the Social Work Department worked with me, and I was able to handle it all,” Villemez said. “I give thanks for my siblings for caring for my mother and my husband and sons for cooking, cleaning, planning meals, and allowing me to pretty much live on campus seven days a week. It’s truly been a gift to be able to complete the program and have family and friends that still love me.”

• Shameka Wright’s son inspired her to reach her educational goal that culminates in Thursday’s ceremony. “I am the single parent of a nine-year-old son, and I drove from Hot Springs to Little Rock to make sure I obtained an education to better the life of my child and myself,” she said. “I was a full-time student and employee, pulling sometimes 10 to 12 hours a night to make ends meet.”

  Already a graduate with a bachelor of arts degree, she received a graduate degree in adult education on Thursday. “I just got offered a teaching job, and I’m off to a great start,” Wright said. “I tell everyone I know, ‘it’s hard but hang in there. It will pay off.’”

• As a central Arkansas teen, Jeffrey Harris had a series of missteps that caused him to drop out of high school. “Despite the bleak future I had brought upon myself through a long sequence of bad decisions, I managed to earn a GED and joined the Air Force at the age of 18,” he said.  

  During his service in the Iraq war, Harris was able to witness first hand that millions of people lack adequate food, water, medicine, and education.  “The education I had once regarded as a chore started to feel like a treasure,” he said.  After his enlistment, Harris returned to Arkansas and enrolled at UALR to tackle pre-medical undergraduate work.  “I quickly learned that hard work and determination were the main prerequisites for good grades,” he said.  

  Harris graduated with a 4.0 grade point average and a bachelor of science degree in biology and a minor in chemistry.  His next goal:  becoming a medical doctor. “Initially I thought it was naive to suppose that a high school dropout could successfully undertake such an ambitious task,” he said.  “But I am confident that my diverse experiences will serve me well in my attempt to answer the problems and challenges within the field of medicine.”

• Erica Whitfield, a 2005 UALR graduate with bachelor’s degrees in health sciences and Spanish, was working full time at Youth Home Inc. when she decided to seek a master’s degree in adult education.

  She enrolled in a full load of courses while keeping a full work schedule, including night work shifts. Six months later, she was promoted with new responsibilities with completely different work hours. Such a change in schedule could have slowed her down. Instead, Whitfield buckled down even more and was able to complete the two-year program in a year. Her plans after graduation: to further her career at Youth Home.

• It took her 10 years, but Amy C. Anderson will graduate with a degree in psychology with a minor in English. During those 10 years, Anderson suffered seven miscarriages, gave birth to her fourth child, received a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome and schizophrenia for one child and epilepsy for another, who was experiencing 10 to 20 seizures daily.  Her marriage ended and she sat for eight weeks in a hospital intensive care unit with a mother who had a brain aneurysm that nearly killed her.

  This semester, as one of her final assignments in an American Literature course taught by Dr. Zabelle Stodola, Anderson was asked to choose a work of literature and argue for its importance. Anderson chose the mid-19th century novel “Ruth Hall” by Sara Willis Parton, who wrote under the pen name Fanny Fern. The heroine had to provide for herself and her children after being first widowed and then divorced after a disastrous second marriage.

  “I have fallen in love with Fanny Fern,” Anderson said. “Like her, I have found myself alone, not knowing how I was going to support my children. I have gone hungry so they would have enough to eat. I have had many sleepless nights. Many times, I thought I should just give up, but something kept me going. Now I find myself at the end. This is my last semester. I found my strength. I just wished I had Fanny Fern’s words to encourage me (along the way). This novel has a place in this course, because you never know whom it may inspire.”

  “I might add,” Stodola said, “you never know who might be inspired by the strength, tenacity, and achievement of Amy Anderson.”