Harper grad wins prestigious scholarship

Amanda Muledy, 26, of Wheeling doesn’t think of herself as a success story.

Yet, consider this: She left her bartending job one day and enrolled at Harper College the next, literally in the middle of a semester. On Sunday, she graduated as one of its most accomplished students.

“She is the pride of the English department,” said Asst. Professor Alicia Tomasian.

With a 4.0 grade-point average, Muledy was the first Harper students named to the All-Illinois Academic Team.

And recently she was selected from nearly 800 nominees across the country as a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, which will aid her in continuing her education.

Only 60 community college students nationwide received the prestigious award from the foundation, whose mission is to help outstanding students complete their college education. It provides up to $30,000 per year to each of the students selected annually, making it the largest private scholarship for two-year and community college transfer students in the country.

“It’s a huge achievement and a great accomplishment,” said John Garcia, Muledy’s Phi Theta Kappa honors society adviser. “She’s considered by the people who have taught her, particularly in our English department, to be doing work at the level of a Ph.D. student. She’s that gifted.”

The scholarship will give her opportunities she never dreamed possible, she said, describing it as “amazing.”

She plans to pursue a degree in English at either Lake Forest College or Northwestern University.

Once she made her decision to pursue her dream of earning a college degree, she immersed herself in her studies and thrived, taking joy from her classes.

“Sometimes I regret what I see as wasted years,” Muledy said in an interview last week. “But that regret is mitigated by the fact that I am getting so much more out of my education as an adult than I ever would have as an 18-year-old.

“It is good that I waited,” she added. “I changed into a person who adores everything about getting an education, and I never would have anticipated that, knowing the attitude I had in high school.”

Muledy described herself as an avid reader, who was starved for new information and intellectual stimulation when she made her break from bartending.

“I never seemed to do very well at jobs where I wasn’t challenged or engaged,” she said. “I had forgotten what it was like to be good at something.”

That’s why, when she landed at Harper and began doing well, she felt confident.

Now, she hopes to pursue a career in academic publishing after completing her four-year degree, and one day write literary criticism.

“I am so fortunate that I love school so much, because the rewards for loving it have been so rich,” she said. “I have had irreplaceable mentors, opportunities I never dreamed of and this amazing scholarship. I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world.”