My Story... By Jefferson State Math Instructor Robert Wallace

My two brothers and I were raised by my mother, who was a single parent. Both my mother and my youngest brother had significant health issues and required a lot of time and care as I was growing up. Because my mother was not able to work full-time, we depended heavily on government assistance to make ends meet.

When I turned sixteen, I dropped out of high school for a number of reasons but primarily to help support my family. My mother took a few classes at Jefferson State, which was how I became familiar with the college. Even though she was not able to complete her program of study due to her health problems she did always emphasize to us the necessity of a good education in order to succeed.

When I was old enough, I took the GED exam. I was concerned that I would not be able to do much with the GED unless I had some college to go with it. By the time I took the GED, we were living in Pinson, Alabama so I applied for admittance to Jefferson State because it was close enough that I could walk to school. At the time I had not entirely decided upon my course of study, but I was leaning toward medicine since I thought at the time that it might allow me to help my mother and my youngest brother.

I found the college environment profoundly more conducive to learning than that of high school and as a result I excelled in almost all of my classes. After a couple of terms I started to work in the math lab as a tutor and developed a strong working relationship with many of the faculty. My chemistry instructor realized one day that I was having trouble seeing the board and she made an appointment with her optometrist for me to get glasses. She and a couple of other faculty members paid for the visit and the glasses out of their own pockets since they knew that I could not afford to pay for it myself.

By the time I had finished the calculus series I had developed an affinity for mathematics and physics. An instructor in the math department took an interest in me and began to help me with my independent study of various topics in mathematics. One of my coworkers in the math lab was a graduate student at UAB and she realized that much of what I was teaching myself was material similar to what she was doing in her graduate courses. She spoke to one of her professors about me and I was invited to visit the math department UAB.

Several of the faculty members at Jefferson State arranged for someone to drive me to the meeting at UAB since I did not have transportation at the time. The math department at UAB was in the process of building a new PhD program in applied mathematics and they were recruiting new talent for the program. I was offered financial aid and scholarship money to complete my undergraduate degree in mathematics at UAB and I was strongly encouraged to apply for this new program in mathematics.

In order to get started at UAB several of the faculty at Jefferson State and UAB loaned me money for books and other expenses. During my first semester at UAB I started with advanced undergraduate courses and then later progressed to mostly graduate courses in mathematics during my subsequent semesters at UAB as an undergraduate. During my junior and senior year as an undergraduate I completed nearly enough graduate hours to satisfy the requirements for a Master’s degree. However, I counted most of these hours toward the completion of my undergraduate degree.

Once I completed my bachelor’s degree, I did apply for admittance to graduate school in the math department. I continued to excel in all of my classes and I was the first at UAB to successfully pass the qualifying exam for the PhD program in applied mathematics and I was also the first at UAB to complete the program and complete my PhD in applied mathematics.

Because I was still taking care of my mother and my youngest brother, I needed to remain in the Birmingham area. I taught at a few local colleges before going back to UAB as a professor. I eventually moved to Jefferson State, where I have served as a full-time faculty member since September of 2000.