THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505120055
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KIMBERLY WOODS, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
WHEN MERLENE Chappell-Wallace enrolled at Norfolk State University in 1991, the family budget was streamlined, her husband started doing more housework and her daughter became her study partner.
Absent from the classroom for 16 years, Chappell-Wallace knew it would be tough going back. To succeed, she would need to focus all of her attention on school. Any family problem that came up, her husband would have to take care of.
``We made an agreement that nothing would get in the way,'' Chappell-Wallace said.
And nothing did.
The 38-year old will graduate magna cum laude Sunday with a bachelor's degree in political science. She will enter a master's program in history at the College of William and Mary in the fall. Then she wants a doctorate degree and to attend law school. The self-described workaholic plans to teach, practice law, write a book and eventually be a judge.
Sunday's graduation is the first step.
``The tears are inside,'' said Chappell-Wallace, a former day care operator and insurance salesperson from Chesapeake. ``I will be the first in my family to graduate from college.''
Chapell-Wallace's husband of 20 years, Quency, and her 11-year-old daughter and study partner, Merletha, will watch as she walks across the stage at Norfolk Scope. So will her parents and siblings. She says they all share credit for her accomplishment.
After graduating from high school in 1975, Chappell-Wallace attended college in her native state of Washington but left because of financial reasons. For her family of nine, college was too much of a financial burden.
The composed but always serious Chappell-Wallace remembered how her parents kept her daughter one summer and a younger brother helped buy her books.
Her first two years as a student, Chappell-Wallace worked full-time and maintained a B average. Dissatisfied, she worked fewer hours and raised her grades A's.
Between school and family, Chappell-Wallace found time to serve as vice president of the Political Science Club and to be active in the Alpha Kappa Mu honor society. This February, she commuted three days each week to Richmond to work as an administrative aide to Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth. She scheduled the senator's itinerary, tracked her legislative bills and handled corres-pondence.
Lucas described Chappell-Wallace as a motivated self-starter. ``If I had the funds I would hire her,'' Lucas said.
Another collegiate high point came last year during an intense, five-week summer program at the William and Mary. Chappell-Wallace and four other NSU undergraduates researched and wrote articles that were published in Reconstruction - An Occasional Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship.
When Chappell-Wallace continues her academic journey at William and Mary, she will either move to Williamsburg and return home on the weekends, or the whole family will move to Williamsburg, or the family will live in Newport News and her husband will commute to his job at the Ford Motor Plant in Norfolk.
``My husband is not standing in my way,'' she said.
In the future, she and her husband want to start a scholarship fund at NSU to help others who will come after her.
``It's my way of giving back to a school that gave to me,'' Chappell-Wallace said. MEMO: Kimberly Woods is a senior at Norfolk State University. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff
Marlene Chappell-Wallace, who returned to school after 16 years, is
graduating magna cum laude from Norfolk State - with the help of her
husband, Quency, and daughter, Merletha, 11.
by CNB