{"id":109523,"date":"2019-05-14T08:22:05","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T14:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=109523"},"modified":"2019-05-14T09:23:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T15:23:54","slug":"commencement-feature-wallaces-uses-perseverance-scholarship-support-to-earn-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=109523","title":{"rendered":"Commencement Feature: Wallace uses perseverance, scholarship support to earn degree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Krista<\/a><\/p>\n

There were few times in Krista\u2019s high school career when she was asked to lead a group of her peers. She wasn\u2019t given the title “Most Likely to Succeed” and she wasn\u2019t eager to attend college. Today, she leads her peers as the president of the Reisher Scholars Club and her dream is to help struggling students.<\/p>\n

Krista Wallace, a charismatic soft-spoken senior at UCCS is honest about her past struggles. During high school she was not the best student. Wallace graduated after attending summer and night school to meet graduation requirements. While she was no stranger to struggles, she is now proud to be a nontraditional student with a 3.89 GPA, is the recipient of not just one, but three scholarships, and has worked a full-time job throughout college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember teachers at my high school not giving me a test in class because I was already failing and they saw no reason for me to even take the test,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cMy turning point was a counselor I spoke to who believed in me and said what I needed to do to graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

To say Wallace was busy her senior year in high school was an understatement, and upon graduation other life events did not allow her to slow down. Two years after high school Wallace learned her mother was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver due to alcohol consumption. Shortly after her mom\u2019s diagnosis, her father too was experiencing health complications.<\/p>\n

Both diagnoses meant Wallace put plans on hold. She took a gap year in between high school and eventually enrolled at Pikes Peak Community College. She took one class at a time, working various retail and service industry jobs while caring for both of her parents. The jobs paid the bills, but Wallace knew she was meant for more. She loved interacting with people and wanted to impact the lives of those who had similar challenges while in school as she did \u2014 students who needed an extra hand to help them see their own potential.<\/p>\n

After attending PPCC for six years, Wallace learned about a scholarship fair at UCCS. She discovered UCCS offered a 60-for-60 enrollment, where students with 60 credits or more could apply to UCCS and all credits would transfer. She also learned about the Karen Possehl Women\u2019s Endowment scholarship, the Reisher Scholarship and the Reach Your Peak scholarship program. All of which she applied for and was awarded the scholarships.<\/p>\n

Fast forward and UCCS has been home to Wallace for two years. She will graduate May 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in student affairs in higher education. She has applied to, and been accepted into, two graduate schools. Looking back on her journey, Wallace is proud of herself and never doubted she\u2019d be where she is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t always know which path I\u2019d be on, but I knew I wanted to go for my bachelor’s degree, become a counselor and change someone\u2019s life for the better the way my high school counselor stepped in at the right time to change mine,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cHaving the support from scholarships also helped me reach my goals, someone invested in me and this made obtaining my degree a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

With acceptance to the top two of her graduate school choices, Wallace now has a big decision to make-\u2014 which school will it be?<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth schools offer the graduate degree I\u2019m seeking, and one offers a master’s in student affairs in higher education with an emphasis in leadership and the other is higher education in student affairs with a concentration in counseling,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cThis is a great dilemma to have because both schools would be a good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being committed to her studies and excited about her future sparked passion in Wallace and she found her calling. Scholarship support also eased the burden of paying for school and she was able to make more connections on campus working less hours. Wallace credits her boost in confidence to UCCS. She is a leader because many saw this quality within her and made sure she saw it too.<\/p>\n

The end to Wallace\u2019s undergraduate college career will be celebrated by her father, siblings, close friends and family. The one person missing will be Wallace\u2019s mother who passed away in 2018 due to complications from her illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019ll feel my mother\u2019s presence as I walk across the stage in May. She always believed I could do what I set my mind to and I\u2019ll miss her, but I know she will be with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s father still has health concerns; however, he will attend commencement to see his daughter receive her degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father thinks I\u2019m the smartest person in the world, I am the first in my family to graduate from college,\u201d said Wallace. \u201cEveryone is so proud of me and I am proud of me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wallace graduated high school after attending summer and night school to meet graduation requirements. She is now proud to be a nontraditional student with a 3.89 GPA, is the recipient of not just one, but three scholarships, and has worked a full-time job throughout college. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":109528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,49],"tags":[53,86,42,130],"class_list":["post-109523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-campus-announcements","tag-academic-affairs","tag-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences","tag-commencement","tag-department-of-psychology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Copy-of-Facebook-Post-\u2013-Untitled-Design-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-suv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109523"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109993,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109523\/revisions\/109993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/109528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}