HANCEVILLE – Life has thrown some roadblocks and challenges in front of Kelly Barnette Lee over the years. And while it's taken her a while to get around them, Lee has finally earned a degree in social work and found a job in a career to which she's felt a calling.
Lee graduated last week from Wallace State Community College with a degree in Social Work from the Human Services program, completing the degree she started working on in 2013, but finishing an education that really took almost 17 years to achieve after coming back from those roadblocks and challenges mentioned earlier.
At the age of 13 Lee's parents divorced after 25 years of marriage. Her childhood home was then destroyed by fire and her mother remarried. Lee was confused, bitter, felt alone, and made a few negative choices. After moving in with her biological father, she changed schools and dually enrolled at West Point High School and Wallace State. After graduation from West Point in 1999 with an advanced high school diploma, she married her high school sweetheart (Nathan Lee) and continued college at WSCC. She then discovered she was pregnant with Baby No. 1 and then Baby No. 2, then Baby No. 3. Between pregnancies, she withdrew from WSCC.
In 2012 her husband and she felt impressed to be foster parents for Cullman County DHR. While completing foster parent training, she felt the Lord was telling her "you have to do more." During 2013 she applied and was accepted into the Human Services Social Work program. On her first day of class, her child was sick and her husband stayed home from work so she could attend class. During the last two and a half years in the Human Services Program, her family has fostered eight small children and raised three biological children. While completing 450 hours of clinicals at The Link of Cullman County, Lee was caring for nine children and was enrolled full-time in Human Services. Her family also adopted one of their foster children.
While a student, there were numerous times she wanted to throw her hands in the air and give up on her dream. She constantly had sick babies, DHR family meetings required of foster parents, court appearances, a child with a broken arm who required surgery, her dad had a heart attack, transportation and financial issues, and she suffered from kidney stones. Still, Lee was determined to graduate. Her husband, children, parents, church family, and HUS classmates encouraged her to keep pursuing.
Human Services chair Susan Beck said, "When Kelly Lee applied to and was accepted into the Human Services program, she felt God was preparing her to serve and help others, but she was not sure if she had the qualifications to be a social worker. Being a full-time student while caring for nine children and competing clinical hours and classwork could be overwhelming and stressful. As she advanced through the program, she knew that quitting was not an option. She still felt an intense desire to help people. With the support of her God, family, classmates, church family, and Cullman County DHR Foster Program Department, she persevered.
"Kelly was created for the Human Services profession," Beck continued. "She possesses qualities of genuineness, trust, passion for others, respect, empathy, and unconditional positive regard. As Marie Wright Edelman stated, 'Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.' Kelly Lee has already touched my life, the lives of her classmates, foster children, and those needing assistance in this community and will affect thousands more as she advances in her career. As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Wallace State, I am honored that she chose to 'Be One of Us.'"
When Lee completed her clinical hours with The Link, she was offered the Family Support Advocate position. She started her new job May 2, 2016.
The Link provides free adult education classes through WSCC, as well as tutoring; VIPS (Volunteers in Public Schools), a reading and mentorship program for at-risk children; WiseUp financial literacy for teens in 9th and 12th grade; Renew U classes, which are Biblically-based classes offered to the community and in the jail to help individuals better themselves; and similar programs. All these classes are free.
"My favorite day of the week is the day I spend at the jail," Lee said. "Those ladies inspire me. I had a different impression of how it might be going in, but they are hungry for learning and self-improvement. They have had a difficult life and want to change. They inspire me to come back as much as I inspire them." Each class is done in 8-week terms. This term – changes that heal – reviews different things people can do to change the way they think and act.
"I see hope in their eyes," Lee said. "I feel like I've done something when I leave there."
Lee will supervise court-ordered visitation for families when the program, which is a partnership with the courts and DHR, gets underway, which is expected to happen around the first of June. Though that will be her main program, she will continue to work on other projects, like the jail outreach program.
"I'm so excited about this opportunity," she added. "I am amazed how God had this all worked out and it just took obedience and perseverance from me to see it all come together. I absolutely love what I am doing and can't believe how blessed I am that I get paid for it. My life will be changed forever because of Human Services at WSCC. I hope my life can inspire change in others and to know it's never too late and it does not matter how many children you have; you can still pursue your dreams."
Lee's dream is to complete an online bachelor's social work program while giving back and working at The Link.
To learn more about the Human Services program or other programs of study at Wallace State, visit http://www.wallacestate.edu.
