Toby Daughtery, a Pulaski Tech graduate who continued his education with a Shelby Breedlove Scholarship to UALR, delivered the keynote address Tuesday, Feb. 8, at the Achieving the Dream Strategy Institute Conference in Indianapolis.

Daughtery, a sociology major, received a robust standing ovation after his speech at the conference’s opening night banquet.

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count is a national nonprofit organization that helps more community college students succeed, particularly those of color and low-income. Pulaski Tech is one of four Arkansas community colleges participating in the organization.

“Toby did a wonderful job with the keynote speech. He received a huge standing ovation and was interrupted by applause at least six times,” said Dr. Dan Bakke, president of Pulaski Tech who attended the conference. “He is a great student success story.”

Born and raised in Dixie Addition, a small community in North Little Rock, Daughtery lived with his grandmother – former UALR cook Louise Rhodes – for the first 10 years of his life. His single mother raised him through his teenage years, along with his four brothers and two sisters at the Windemere Housing Complex.

From his earliest school days, Daughtery said he loved writing and art. At 13, his artwork was displayed at the Arkansas Arts Center, along with other schoolmates who excelled in visual arts. But drugs and the lure of money made from selling them landed Daughtery into prison three times. He watched from behind bars as his mother’s hair turned gray, and he committed himself to turning his life around when he learned of his mother’s diagnosis of breast cancer.

“I promised my grandmother and my mother I am never going back (to prison), and I was going to college,” he said. “When that door opened, I never looked back. I don’t want to be accountable for the heartache my mother went through. I blamed it on the lure of money drenched in stupidity.”

Daughtery enrolled in Pulaski Tech, eventually receiving a fine arts scholarship, and graduating with honors in spring of 2009 with an associate of arts degree. That fall, Daughtery accepted a Shelby Breedlove Scholarship and entered UALR to pursue a bachelor’s degree in sociology with double minors in creative writing and studio art.

“My life’s mission is to help decrease the number of people going to prison and to help increase the number of students entering college,”  he said. “We are all products of our environment, but our environment does not have to determine our destination.”

Daughtery is in the process of completing his first novel, and he wants someday to start a not-for-profit organization to help disadvantaged youth ignite and embrace their creative passions.

“When I received the Shelby Breedlove Scholarships, it made me realize anybody can do anything if they set their heights high enough.”