In 1996 as she was graduating from Wilbur D. Mills High School, Cloyce Kathleen “Katie” Brents just assumed she didn’t have the brains nor the bucks to go to college. No one in her family had ever pursued higher education, and she figured she wouldn’t either.

“At the time when I graduated, I thought I was not smart enough or rich enough to attend college,” she said. “I thought at the time that my only options were working and getting married and starting a family. So that is exactly what I did.”

She married school teacher Brian Brooks, got a job as a secretary at a construction company, settled in Bryant, and started raising three girls — Kaitlin, 10; Audra Claire, 3, and Evie, 1.

Then in 2008, the economy tanked, and Brooks lost her job. She couldn’t find another one and was on unemployment for a year-and-a-half. It was a rough period for the family, and for Brooks personally, until her husband reminded Brooks of her teenage dreams.

“I have always wanted to be a high school teacher for as long as I can remember,” she said. “So I decided to take a chance and get past the fears of not being good enough.”

Brooks enrolled in UALR, majoring full time in health sciences with a minor in secondary education.

“I feel like I am finally doing what I was meant to do almost 15 years ago,” she said.

She credits tremendous support from her husband, who teaches advanced placement science classes at Bethel Middle School and who is studying for an advanced degree in educational leadership. She also was wowed by an ASIST Scholarship — Adult Student In Scholastic Transition — from the Little Rock chapter of Executive Women International.

Last week, she was a guest at the the Little Rock EWI chapter’s ASIST meeting where she received a certificate and scholarship check. The chapter will also submit Brooks for a national grant.

After believing for years that she wasn’t smart enough, Brooks said she is pursing her long-delayed dreams not just for her own self esteem and fulfillment but those of her three daughters.

“Going to college is making a huge difference in the lives of my children. My 10-year-old is so proud because she knows how badly I have wanted to teach, so she knows now that I am on the road to doing just that,” she said. “They are so young now, but we have already told them that once high school is over, college is the next step.”

Katie Brents Brooks has learned through experience that dreams deep inside never go away.

“They will stay there until you are strong enough and brave enough to take a chance and give it a shot,” she said. “It took me 15 years to find the courage, and I am so happy that I did because my entire family will benefit from my success and happiness.”