ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - Two Winthrop University students were each awarded an ANSWER Scholarship for the 2021-22 academic year.
ANSWER Scholarship provides college scholarships, mentoring and professional development opportunities to mothers. The goal of the non-profit is to send local mothers to college so that their children can learn from their examples.
The Winthrop recipients, Johanna Enireb and Monkia Wells, are two of 18 mothers who have been awarded ANSWER scholarships for 2021-22. Since the organization was founded in 2006, more than $530,000 in college scholarships has been given out.
Johanna Enireb
Enireb is on track to graduate from Winthrop in December with a degree in early childhood education. She attended community college for two years in Florida but after getting married, she and her husband relocated to North Carolina. Her plan was to wait "one year" before going back to school so that she could qualify for in-state tuition. Then life happened – including three children – and school became less of a priority.
While substitute teaching, Enireb found a love for teaching and sees it as her calling. Now that two of her children are teenagers and one is a pre-teen, it’s easier for Enireb to focus on completing her degree. She wants to show her children that dreams can be achieved with hard work and dedication.
Enireb and her family live in Indian Land, South Carolina, and she hopes to teach in a local public school in the Palmetto state.
Monkia Wells
Wells is a first-generation college student, the first in her immediate family to graduate from high school and attend college. A sophomore working toward a business degree, she is the mother of three children between the ages of 7 and 15.
The youngest of four, Wells always knew she wanted to make something of herself. The Rock Hill resident has faced many obstacles that kept her from finishing college but feels that now, with her children a bit older, she can continue what she started in her 20s. Her career goals include either owning a business or rising to a high-level position within a company.
Wells wants to show her children that they can be whatever they want if they stay focused, keep their grades up, be respectful and work hard: “They can do it just like Mommy.”
ANSWER offers more than a financial scholarship. It connects each of its scholars with a volunteer mentor through its Mentors For Mom program. Mentors provide support and help scholarship recipients with the challenges of balancing school, work and parenting.
Mentors For Mom is one reason why the ANSWER Class of 2020-21 had a 100 percent graduation rate, in spite of all the challenges brought by the pandemic.
For more information about ANSWER, visit www.answerscholarship.org.
