Special Report: The Scholarship Lady

Editor’s Note: As part of our effort to explain the many things working well in Michigan, we bring you the tale of Jennifer Wallace, who brings scholarships to wide-eyed students who didn’t know they had help coming.

By Chris Andrews

It’s a Sunday afternoon, and Jennifer Wallace is doing what she does best and loves most – clearing a path to college.

“There are tons of scholarships that our kids can get,” she almost shouts to an audience of about 30, mostly parents of high school students, at a Lansing Community College forum. “I’m going to give you the 411 on how to get some loot.”

In less than an hour, she downloads years of experience, shares favorite financial aid web sites and delivers dozens of dos and don’ts for getting scholarships and other help paying for college. She promises to e-mail a 62-page list of scholarships.

“Do not, do not – DO NOT — pay anybody any money to get you money to go. That’s why you pay us,” says Wallace, who has worked for the state of Michigan for 25 years. “We are your tax dollars at work. We like what we do, and we are very good at it.”

Jennifer Wallace is from the government, and she’s here to help. The line draws the expected laughs at college nights in Monroe, Muskegon or Marquette, but for her, it’s a simple truth.

For two decades, she has been on a mission to open college doors to those who might not even imagine it. She’s a life-changer, often to those who don’t know her name. She’s better known as “the Tip Lady” — first for running the Tuition Incentive Program for Michigan students who have been on Medicaid, and now, for offering innumerable and invaluable tips for making college affordable.

Wallace’s job title is outreach manager for the Michigan Education Trust, the state’s prepaid tuition program, but the scope of her work and her message is far broader. She travels the state inspiring children to believe that they can, must and will go to college.

Ferris State University President David Eisler says Wallace played a big role in helping Ferris expand the Tuition Incentive Program. The university has created a TIP Scholars program and more than doubled the number of TIP students from about 300 to more than 700 in the past two years.

“I’ve seen instances where she has taken students, had them spend the night at her house, brought them up to our institution to retake the ACT so they can get in, and brought them into my office so I could meet them,” Eisler said. “This is a lady who goes far, far beyond what anyone would ever expect in terms of trying to promote the program.”

Wallace talks to about 100,000 students a year, from elementary school pupils to college kids she’s keeping tabs on. She’ll stop them at the grocery store or the mall, always carrying pamphlets in her car should the need arise.

Wallace is the difference between college and not for thousands of state residents, says Austerine Hambrick, director of guidance for the Detroit Public Schools. She grabs their attention in “Extreme Reality” presentations that explain the financial implications of a good education, Hambrick says.

“She does not permit them to slouch or not pay attention to her,” Hambrick says. “She’s energetic, she walks, she talks, she touches them, and she makes sure they are understanding what she is saying.”

Wallace goes the extra mile – sometimes hundreds. Hambrick recalled one instance where Wallace drove from the Upper Peninsula at 3 a.m. to pick up a speaker at Michigan State University to take to a professional development program for counselors in Detroit. She drove back to the U.P. to fulfill her own responsibilities and then came back at night to drive the speaker home.

Indeed, Wallace believes she has the dream job. She uses herself as an example: that students entering college often have no idea where it will lead.

“If you open any book, on any college campus anywhere on the planet, nowhere does it say, ‘I want to help kids go to college,’” she said. “But once you find out that is what you want to do, it is wickedly wonderful.”

Wallace prefers to deflect attention from herself toward others. She praises Gov. Jennifer Granholm for a commitment to increasing the state’s college graduation rate. She credits former Department of Social Services Director C. Patrick Babcock for instilling in her the importance of treating people as individuals, rather than caseloads.

“When you start treating people as individuals, you are always thinking, I want to treat this kid like I want somebody to treat my kid,” Wallace said. “The Tip Lady just believes that we are on the planet to make a difference, and we just have to make a difference one day at a time, one kid at a time, one family at a time.”