Jody Tilday

When Jody Dilday was 4, her mother told her she was about to be a big sister, which confused Dilday because her mom wasn’t pregnant.

So Dilday’s parents introduced her to the social worker who was arranging the adoption of her younger brother. Dilday was so impressed she decided on the spot that she was going to be a social worker when she grew up.

“I never wavered,” Dilday said. “I used to pretend I was going to college and pretend I was majoring in social work. I thought my job was going to be giving away babies and making families happy.”

Her job has turned out to be different but just as rewarding. Dilday is the executive director of the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Northwest Arkansas. The fund currently helps about 150 single parents attend college on either a full-time or part-time basis.

Dilday started her career as a caseworker for the Benton County Department of Human Services before becoming a stay-at-home mom. In 2007, when the executive director position opened, Dilday said, she was encouraged to apply by Marcia McCain, a member of the fund’s board of directors.

Dilday said the scholarship fund combines social work with fundraising so she has the best of both worlds. It takes a lot of little donations to make up a scholarship.

“It’s less about single parents, and it’s really about helping families overcome poverty,” Dilday said. “I get to witness a transformation in people’s lives before my very eyes. You don’t often get that. We get to celebrate happy endings every semester.”

Dilday said one of the tenets of the fund is there is not a lot of hand-holding. Recipients get $1,750 a semester for full-time students and $900 for part-time or summer school.

Dilday doesn’t care if they use the money to buy a car or groceries or child care. “We consider it an empowerment model,” Dilday said. “You decide what is best for your families. We do hold them accountable. We don’t ask them to turn in receipts; we ask them to turn in grades.”

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