Published: January 4, 2021; Updated: January 4, 2021
By Megan Sexton, [email protected]
Antonia Adams’ story is full of tragedies. It’s about devastating phone calls, hospital room vigils and more sadness and anguishing decisions than a college student should face. But above all, it is a story of perseverance, about how to fight uncertainty and sadness with the belief that education can restore confidence and hope.
It’s a story that starts in Edgefield County, where Adams grew up “in the middle of nowhere. Peach trees and cow pastures, this was my backyard. Literally, ”she says.
She had what she calls normal middle class education, born when her mother was 44 and her father 47. Her parents instilled in her the value of hard work and the importance of education, with her mother earning her university degree with honors at 60 years.
Adams thrived in public schools in his hometown. She was a high school speaker and a delegate from Palmetto Girls State. She was involved in the band, public speaking competitions and leadership roles. After graduation, she attended a private college, where she considered herself a typical student.
That changed with a visit to the house during the Thanksgiving holiday, during his sophomore year. Her mother, looking sick and thin, revealed that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. Adams had just turned 20 and his mother convinced her to return to college in the spring semester, wanting nothing to hinder her. her daughter’s education.
But the cancer spread quickly and stopped responding to chemotherapy. A phone call in February told Adams that she needed to get home immediately. His mother had only a few months to live; she died a few weeks later, on March 5, 2017, at age 64. The morning after the funeral, his father became very ill. She took him to the hospital, where doctors discovered he was bleeding internally and discovered a tumor on his colon.
He was hospitalized in April, and Adams quickly took responsibility for his care, spending days and nights in the hospital, holding his hand, singing Happy Birthday for him when he turned 68, doing everything to make him comfortable. After consulting with doctors, Adams made the decision to withdraw his father from life support. He died on May 26, 2017.
“After that, I was absolutely hopeless,” she says. “My mom and dad were my best friends. When I was in college, I called them all the time. We’ve always been together. When they passed away, it was the most difficult thing I could imagine. ”
I want to use my story; to let someone see if you give people a chance, if they have access to education and resources, they can recover from anything.
Antonia Adams
She didn’t go back to school and spent the next year running the property, calculating the bills and trying to see her way through chaos. Eventually, she enrolled at Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood, South Carolina, and started work rebuilding her confidence and dealing with the pain of losing her parents.
“Many people there reminded me, ‘You have a lot of potential. You will get over it. You have to remember what your mom and dad said. ‘They knew they were dying. My mother said, ‘You are going back to school’. My father said the same thing: ‘You will succeed’. ”
She went back to school and saw that she had the strength to continue. She found her way again, finding work at Piedmont Tech as a student employee and presidential ambassador. She became involved in diversity issues and was eventually elected president of the student body. She worked at a car dealership to make money.
She started thinking about the next steps, looking at the University of South Carolina. After earning a 3.95 GPA at Piedmont Tech, she was accepted to Darla Moore School of Business and South Carolina Honors College in the fall of 2020. Her experiences with her parents’ estate, probate court and medical bills , inspired their interest in business and law.
She jumped straight to life on the South Carolina campus, becoming a peer leader at the Leadership and Services Center. And while she made a presentation at the Regional Student Leadership and Diversity Conference on the Columbia campus while attending Piedmont Tech, this year she is helping to plan the conference as a student at UofSC. She is a Gamecock Guide, helping to tell the story of the university on social media. She is also part of the Civic Leadership Action and Education Team, involved in voter registration initiatives and sharing electoral information on campus and online. She earned 4.0 GPA in the fall semester.
“I am doing well in my courses and I love the business program here and the opportunities for diversity and leadership. There are many opportunities for students to have a voice here, ”she says.
Now 24, she hopes to graduate in economics with a major in political science in two years. She then hopes to study law at Georgetown University, with a focus on public policy. She thinks that a candidacy for public office may even be in her future.
“I want to help people like me, who are facing unfortunate circumstances. I know how I felt most of the time, trying to discover the world. It’s difficult. And I understand that. It just takes a little hope. Even if you haven’t completely recovered, you can continue to move and progress, ”she says. “Losing my mom and dad opened my eyes. Something like that changes everything. I love the idea of going to Washington and helping make these laws for people who are struggling. I want to use my story; to let someone see if you give people a chance, if they have access to education and resources, they can recover from anything.
“I love being involved. I still suffer for my mom and dad. But I’m finding my way back again. ”
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Topics: Students, Academics, Experiential Learning, Graduate Admissions, Diversity, Service, Leadership, Student Voices, Darla Moore School of Business, South Carolina Honors College