After 26 years of taking classes, Phenix City educator achieves one of her biggest goals

54-year-old Cherryl Williams-Smith is a domestic abuse survivor, a Phenix City teacher, a mother and as of Dec. 14, 2019, a college graduate.

Williams-Smith graduated from Fort Valley State University in December after 26 years of taking classes at a variety of colleges and universities. She was born and raised in Columbus, Georgia, and after graduation, entered the military at age 18. At 21, she was a parent and on the way to being divorced.

By 28, she had a son and was working as a certified nursing assistant, but felt like there was always something more she needed to do in her life. That’s when she decided to start taking a few online college classes.

“I took college courses as life permitted,” Williams-Smith said.

She attended Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas, as well as Georgia Military College at Fort Benning. After being exposed to both a classic school, also known as a predominantly white institution, and an HBCU, Williams-Smith decided to apply to FVSU and was later accepted.

Williams-Smith said it was like a family at FVSU and credits her advisor, Dr. Jerry Haywood, for keeping her on track and focused while she was taking courses.

Williams-Smith graduated with her bachelor’s degree in psychology to learn more about the students she interacts with every day.

“(I’m) trying to understand these children,” she said.

Williams-Smith currently works as a paraprofessional with the Phenix City School District. She works with at-risk students at the Phenix City Success Academy and, according to her, no day is the same.

Since she often doesn’t know what students have to deal with when they leave school, she tries to never pass judgment on any of them.

“I always try to encourage them and I just try and give them hope,” Williams-Smith said. “I keep in contact with them and they know that if they can find me on Facebook, they can get in contact with me.”

She was recently awarded the “I Make a Difference” award from the school district. Williams-Smith said she doesn’t do her job for recognition, but rather out of love for her students. However, there was a time where she did see her current job as just that: a job.

While working at Wynnton Elementary in the early 2000s, a woman pulled Williams-Smith aside one day and said a man was looking for a strong woman with military experience. Williams-Smith, who had experience as a medic in the Air Force, agreed to talk to the man, who was offering a job at the Success Academy.

Initially all she saw was an income increase for her family, but soon it became much more than that.

“I thought going to Phenix City was a raise because they paid more in Alabama than they did in Georgia. Two or three years after I had been in there, though, the light just came on,” she said.

The job turned into taking her students shopping if they needed pants or a coat for the winter time, or sometimes cooking the occasional dinner and, of course, being an ear for kids to vent to — all while taking tests and doing homework for hours during the day and night.

According to Williams-Smith, juggling a family, work and school made it all the more special once it actually came to graduation day. She was the oldest graduate in her class and was even singled out at graduation by faculty members at Fort Valley.

“They had me standing up by myself in that whole coliseum, that’s a humbling moment. Very humbling,” Williams-Smith said.

Despite everything she was juggling while taking classes, Williams-Smith was able to maintain a 3.2 GPA, as well as be a part of FVSU’s Honors Convocation. She always instilled the importance of education in her children and now wants to instill that in other people as a motivational speaker.

“It was the life experience that has allowed me to grow and to develop myself into the type of person that could go out there and share my story. I believe God will give you beauty for your ashes and I think that’s the season that I’m in,” Williams-Smith said.

Williams-Smith will start graduate school in January at Southern New Hampshire University. She will be working to get her master’s degree in child and adolescent psychology, which she says will put her in a better position to help and understand the kids that she works with.

“These children just need somebody to listen and they need somebody to understand. They need somebody that is not about a dollar,” she said.