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April 10, 2007

Student named Collegiate All-American

By Nancy Glasscock

A Wallace State student recently became one of a small percentage of college students named a Collegiate All-American scholar.

Falkville resident Janice Anita Collins, a 1972 graduate of Addison High School, was nominated for the honor by Stacey Moore, a Wallace State instructor. Collins is graduating May 12, and will begin work as a medical assistant May 14 at Dr. Terry Reynolds optometry office in Decatur.

The United States Achievement Academy’s Collegiate All-American Scholar program was established to recognize superior students who excel in academic disciplines, according to a press release from the USAA. The award is presented to fewer than 10 percent of all college students.

Nominees must earn a 3.3 grade- point average or higher, and must be selected by a school official or other qualified sponsor. Collins’ GPA was a 3.5, but she said she expects her cumulative average to improve after this semester.

Because she is not a typical student, Collins said she thought going to college so many years after leaving high school would be difficult.

“It was a little hard to go back, but when I got started it was wonderful,” she said.

Initially apprehensive about enrolling, and worried she wouldn’t be accepted by younger students, Collins said she told herself she would try one semester of the college’s five-semester medical assisting program and see what happened. She said the instructors were helpful and students were friendly.

“The instructors at Wallace were just wonderful, and I made a lot of new friends,” she said. “They hang out with me just like I’m one of them.”

Because she was named an All-American Scholar, Collins will appear in the nationally-published Collegiate All-American Yearbook. She is the daughter of Curtis and Effie Thompson of Addison.

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