Excerpt from the Yellow Springs News
Just try to find some blank space on the walls of Alyce Earl Jenkins’ home study on Omar Circle. The walls are covered with photos of friends and family, but mainly they are blanketed with the plaques and framed certificates from a lifetime of being recognized for outstanding performance and service.
“Sometimes when I’m feeling down, I come in here and think, well, I did make a contribution to different communities at different times,” Jenkins said in an interview last week.
That’s quite an understatement. Jenkins, who is 83, has had a more than 40-year successful career, first as a printer and then as a regional pioneer in the field of vocational rehabilitation, the work for which she has received the most recognition.
The plaques on Jenkins’ walls include a Certificate of Appreciation from the National Rehabilitation Counseling Association in 1989 and 1990, the Distinguished Service Award from Ohio Rehabilitation Counseling Association in 1986, and the U Done Good performance award from the Ohio Association of Counseling and Development in 1985.
That’s only a glimpse of the more than 25 awards on the walls, including many from more than 30 years teaching at Wright State University. Those awards include the Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence in 1992, an Award of Appreciation from Undergraduate Rehabilitation Students in 1993 and the Teacher Excellence Award for 1977 and 1978.
Teaching young people to become vocational rehabilitation counselors has been a satisfying way to spend her life, Jenkins said.
“It’s about helping people with disabilities enter the work force, as well as helping their families,” she said.
Jenkins has also written grants that brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars to Wright State, Wilberforce University and Alabama A&M, her alma mater, in the areas of rehabilitation counseling and diversity awareness. And she served as a consultant to institutions and municipalities to help those entities become accessible to disabled people.
Along the way, Jenkins has also made significant contributions to her community. Her neighbor, Kevin McGruder, interviewed Jenkins as part of the WYSO Civil Rights Oral History Project, when she discussed her early years as the only woman in a mainly male-dominated field of printing.
“Alyce’s love of learning led her to a remarkable range of careers,” McGruder wrote in an email this week. “In retirement she has continued to share her knowledge.”
