Breshears Supports UA Little Rock Graduate Students with $25K Gift
A longtime University of Arkansas at Little Rock employee who worked at the university for more than 40 years has made a generous donation to support single parents who are earning advanced degrees at UA Little Rock.
Sarah Breshears, a retired educator from Sherwood, has donated $25,000 to create the Sarah Breshears Endowed Graduate Scholarship, which will provide assistance for education-related expenses including tuition, books, fees, and room and board. Scholarship recipients will be graduate students who are also single parents who demonstrate financial need and/or merit.
Breshears earned her Master of Business Administration degree from UA Little Rock while she was working full time and raising a family. Since most endowed scholarships are directed toward undergraduate students, Breshears felt it was important to provide a scholarship opportunity for graduate students who are working to improve their careers and raise their families at the same time.
“I was a part of one of the earliest cohorts of the MBA program,” Breshears said. “I started school and almost immediately got pregnant with my second child. It took me a long time to finish my degree in 1981. I could not have done it without my husband. When I graduated, my mother even gave my husband a graduate present as well because she knew I couldn’t have graduated without him. My feelings were for all of the single parents who were trying to work full time, go to school, and take care of their kids. There are a lot of scholarships for undergraduates but not many for graduate students. I wanted to provide a scholarship that will help these hard-working graduate students.”
With her family history, Breshears was drawn toward a career in education. Her father was a professor at Arkansas State Teachers College, now the University of Central Arkansas, and her mother and sister were teachers as well. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Central Arkansas before starting her career and earning her MBA at UA Little Rock.
“I always knew that a college education was critically important,” Breshears said. “I loved the professors in the MBA program at UA Little Rock. The professors are excellent. I would put them up against anybody, and I think that is definitely still true.”
Breshears retired from UA Little Rock in 2007 after working for 43 years at the university. She ended her career as acting director of the former Institute for Economic Advancement (now known as the Arkansas Economic Development Institute) though she spent much of her career serving as the director of the Arkansas State Census Data Center, now the Arkansas Data Center.
Ever since retiring from UA Little Rock, Breshears keeps busy with traveling and charity work. She serves as the chair of the Finance Committee at her church, Sylvan Hills United Methodist Church, and delivers meals through Meals on Wheels.
