THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604090138
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 09 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Education
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
She wipes a mall clean in one fell swoop, shopping just once a year for everything from Christmas to Mother's Day to Aunt Ida's birthday.
She seldom sleeps more than six hours a night and admits that she simply can't sit still.
Those are just some of the secrets to Arleen ``Sam'' White's success.
White, well on her way to completing a two-year degree in business management, is the Paul D. Camp Community College student who recently won a scholarship from the Franklin Junior Woman's Club.
But she's much more than a college student and scholarship recipient.
At 40, White is president of the college's chapter of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She attends classes on three campuses - Smithfield, Suffolk and Franklin. She goes wherever she needs to go to get the class she wants.
She's also a full-time mother, volunteer, devoted to several local civic clubs, and, right now, she's a woman locked into the final hours of income tax season at H&R Block, where she works full-time during tax season, part-time the rest of the year.
Ask White to talk about her education, and it's likely she won't know where to begin.
After graduating in 1973 from Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, White had several jobs and attended night college classes until she was accepted into the apprenticeship program at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. At the time, she was one of only three women enrolled in the electronics mechanics program.
After 10 years at the yard, where she also took night classes in industrial management, White and her husband, Curtis David, decided to start a family. She was pregnant with her first child when she took the first H&R Block income tax preparation course.
Since then, she has taken every course the tax-preparing company offers. Now, she teaches those courses. She also has mastered the two-day ``enrolled agents'' exam with the Internal Revenue Service.
Once her second child, Toni, now 6, was in pre-school, White decided that she still was uncertain exactly what she wanted to do with her life. That led to going back to school for a college degree.
``I started at Camp knowing that once my children were older, I'd go to work full-time,'' she said.
By then, in addition to working for H&R Block, White was an active volunteer at Hardy Elementary School and volunteered at the local public library. She also was - and still is - an active member of the Smithfield Junior Woman's Club. Currently, she holds memberships in both the junior and senior woman's clubs.
``I gave up holding any offices until I get out of school,'' she said. ``But I still do whatever I can to help on projects.''
White started at Camp with just one course in the fall of 1993 and took one more class the following spring.
``The next year, I jumped in with both feet and took 15 (credit) hours,'' she said. ``I almost died!''
But she hasn't slowed down. White found herself at all three Camp campuses last semester. This semester, she's at Franklin and in Suffolk.
``I tend to stay away from night classes because of my family,'' she said. ``That's why I travel to Franklin. There was a class I wanted in Suffolk, but it was only taught at night. I had to go to Franklin to get the same class during the day.''
Surviving tax season, White said, is probably the most difficult part of her hectic schedule. At this time of year, even her family can't keep track of her.
``My husband will call the office looking for me and, when they tell him I'm not there, he has to check my schedule to find out I'm in class,'' she said, laughing.
Once White finishes at Camp, she intends to go on to a four-year college for a degree in business administration. She's looking, she said, at Christopher Newport University. The choice, at least, could keep her on one campus.
If she makes that choice, she said, it could give her more time to volunteer at her church, Trinity United Methodist, where she works in the nursery and teaches Bible school.
``By the time I finish college, it will be time for my kids to start,'' White said. ``That's what I'm looking at down the road.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Arleen White won a scholarship from the Franklin Junior Woman's
Club.
by CNB