SFSC alumna, Barbara Stites, who graduated with an Associate in Arts from the College in 1974, spent most of her career in Library and Information Sciences. Although now retired, she looks back on her personal and professional life with a great sense of accomplishment and service to libraries throughout Florida.

Stites earned her doctorate in Leadership and Education with a specialization in Human Resource Development from Barry University, a Master of Arts in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida, and her Bachelor of Arts in Education from the University of South Florida.

However, Stites’ academic and professional careers may never have come to pass, but for Stites’ own tenacity as well as the generosity of one person who strongly believed that education paves the road to a better life.

Stites’ family moved to Broward County, Fla. from New Jersey when she was 10 years old. At age 15, she moved to Lake Placid and, later, graduated from Lake Placid High School.

“My father graduated from Pace University in New York on the GI Bill after World War II,” she said. “But my parents were divorced and I didn’t have much contact with my dad. So, college wasn’t familiar to me. I came from serious poverty. We lived in a travel trailer in a trailer park in Lake Placid. I moved out of my mother’s place when I was 16 and was then on my own. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I was a feisty teenager.”

Stites decided that she wanted to become a librarian. “I was a curious individual and just loved learning,” she said. “I like reading — it was an escape for me. But I just loved digging through information. I love the hunt, just as people go to thrift stores and hunt for good deals. Some people like to go fossil hunting. I loved the idea of researching.”

But Stites felt somewhat limited in her resources to become a librarian. “At the time in Central Florida, a woman had three choices: she could become a secretary, a nurse, or a teacher,” she said.

Stites knew little about pursuing a college degree or how to apply for college. In fact, she was unaware that SFSC (South Florida Junior College at that time) existed in her own community. “But I heard that a scholarship was available through the Lake Placid Rotary Club,” she said. “And I considered going to secretarial school. The man who was in charge of the Rotary’s scholarships was Mr. Wilkins.”

When Stites applied for the Rotary scholarship, Mr. Wilkins contacted her and said that the scholarship was for college, but that secretarial school wasn’t considered college. He said, “I have an idea. How about I pay for your first semester of secretarial school personally?” Stites agreed.

A few months later, Stites spoke with Mr. Wilkins and said that she learned about SFSC in Avon Park and would like attend. Mr. Wilkins agreed to pay for her first semester at the College. Continue Reading