April Student of the Month: Kristy Browning of Pulaski County
The Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund is proud to recognize Kristy Browning as our April 2026 Student of the Month.
After serving for 13 years in the Army National Guard as a full-time technician, Kristy knew she needed to make a change. She always had a passion for teaching, finding herself drawn to roles where she could work with children. Plus, she needed to be a role model for Aria, her 8-year-old daughter.
“I owed it to my daughter to set an example of perseverance and determination,” she said.
So, after leaving college 12 years prior, Kristy made the decision to return to school to pursue her dream of teaching. Although she was nervous to go back, she knew she had to be resilient because she “owed it to [her] future students that will benefit from the love and education [she] will instill in them.”
“I remind myself that I have two choices: persevere and in 10 years I’ll have my degrees and my dream career, or give up and in 10 years I’ll likely be at a job that I hate, feeling unfulfilled,” she said. “The time will pass anyway, so I might as well work towards my dream.”
Kristy is already in the field, working as a paraprofessional in a 4th-grade Alternative Learning Environment (ALE) classroom.
She’s passionate about building the foundational skills students need and improving Arkansas’ literacy rate. In the short-term, she’s working to become an elementary teacher, while her long-term goal is to become a reading specialist.
“I chose elementary education as my major simply because I will best be able to improve literacy by approaching it as early as possible,” she said.
Not only is Kristy on track to graduate from the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Tech in May with an Associate of Science in Education, but she has also excelled academically. She has made the Dean’s List every semester, and one of her papers has been selected for publication in her university’s academic journal.
Her passion for education has ignited that same passion in her daughter.
“It has become easier for her to understand the importance of homework and education because she sees how much time and energy I put into my schoolwork,” Kristy said.
“Aria has started asking to wear college shirts for AVID [Advancement Via Individual Determination] day at her school.”
Beyond the scholarship funds, which have helped her cover bills and repair her car, she noted that ASPSF’s workshops have been incredibly helpful, citing the first-time home buyer’s class as an example. She also mentioned how grateful she and her daughter are for the Museum of Discovery membership, which is available for Pulaski County scholarship recipients thanks to special funding from the Charles A. Frueauff Foundation.
To the donors of ASPSF, she’d like to say:
“Their donations saved my life. Before going back to school, I was depressed and unhappy with my life. Their donations allowed me to be able to follow my dreams. Every semester has been better than the last. Two years later, I am just a couple months away from my first degree, working in a career field that I love, and making myself and my daughter proud. Sometimes I cry when I see all that I have been able to accomplish in the past few years and it was in large part because of this scholarship. So, I thank them from the bottom of my heart!”
