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Bailey Hutcheson went to college as a single parent on a scholarship. This month, the fund that paid for it is honoring her.
The Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund will name Hutcheson its 2026 Distinguished Alumna at its A Day of Hope luncheon on Friday, Sept. 18, in Little Rock. She graduated from Arkansas State University-Mountain Home in 2023 as a scholarship recipient and now serves as the college’s director of Career Pathways, where she helps other students navigate the same road.
The fund cited her for finishing her degree, building a career in higher education and continuing to give back. Hutcheson volunteers with the organization by helping with scholarship applications, interviews and award ceremonies, and she raised money for this year’s ASPSF Day of Giving through her own fundraising page.
A second honoree has ties to the Observer’s coverage area. North Arkansas College in Harrison was named Outstanding Education Partner for its work with single parents pursuing degrees. Bank OZK received the Outstanding Community Partner award for its grants, laptop donations and professional development workshops for scholarship recipients statewide.
The luncheon runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Next Level Events, 1400 W. Markham St. Tickets are $75 through Sept. 10 and $100 beginning Sept. 11, available at ASPSF.org/Hope.
Author Cara Brookins is the keynote speaker, and she is an alumna of the program herself. Brookins received an ASPSF scholarship for the 1995-96 school year while working on an associate degree at ASU-Beebe. She later became internationally known for building a two-story house alongside her four children in 2007, teaching herself to lay block, frame walls and run plumbing and gas lines from YouTube tutorials.
“I could not have attended college without the financial help,” Brookins said. “And from an emotional perspective, feeling seen, valued and supported as a single mom made me believe a degree was possible.”
Brookins kept taking a class or two a semester until 2017, when she earned a bachelor’s degree in technical writing from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She said the years it took showed her children what education was worth.
Also speaking is CJ Summerville, who earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Arkansas in 2018 while raising two young sons. He has since earned a master’s in education and teaches math in the Conway School District.
The scholarship fund has awarded more than $50 million since 1990 to single parents pursuing higher education across Arkansas. Baxter County students continue to benefit from it, including ASUMH student Zachary Brown, who was named the fund’s Student of the Month in July while studying special education, working at Goodyear and raising his 9-year-old son.
