{"id":1164,"date":"2019-11-20T16:46:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T16:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2025-03-27T15:48:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T19:48:02","slug":"dr-barbara-thomas-following-her-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2019\/11\/20\/dr-barbara-thomas-following-her-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Barbara Thomas: Following Her Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column1164_65d718-7f > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column1164_65d718-7f dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69\"]{font-size:1.5rem;line-height:30px;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;color:#808080;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1164_7dfecf-69\">Dr. Barbara Thomas hopes you know that your goals aren\u2019t subject to prior authorization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That what others tell you is possible doesn\u2019t matter nearly as much as what\u2019s in your heart. It\u2019s a lesson that\u2019s changed the course of her life, and she hopes you\u2019ll remember it, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou tell them for me and for you, \u2018Yes I can. Yes I can,\u2019\u201d says Dr. Thomas, 72, of Boiling Springs, South Carolina, who earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in Business from Wilmington College in 1995 after three decades in the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes to education, the only thing that limits you is yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She\u2019s taken that message of encouragement and self-development to 40 nations in her second career as a missionary and motivational speaker to women\u2019s and youth ministries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That message has taken her a long way from a Philadelphia high school in the mid-1960s, where a counselor who saw her researching college scholarships advised her to apply for department store jobs instead. \u201cHe told me, \u2018Black kids from the projects do not go to college,\u2019\u201d she recalls. \u201cI had capabilities, but I didn\u2019t realize them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually, though, they made themselves known. By the early 1990s, she\u2019d worked her way up from answering phones and directing calls at DuPont to arranging access to the IT department\u2019s databases. The company announced that it would reimburse employees\u2019 tuition for degrees in Business, not just Chemical Engineering. \u201cAnd I decided to jump on the opportunity before they changed their minds,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She\u2019d passed age 40. She was working full time and raising a teenage daughter following the death of her husband. Still, she transferred credits she\u2019d earned at St. Joseph\u2019s University and Delaware Technical Community College to Wilmington College and attended classes at night. \u201cIt was a lot,\u201d she says. She graduated in less than two years, and when she did, her name was on the dean\u2019s list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide wu-blockquote-row is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote wu-blockquote-simple is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWilmington College gave me the ability to put it all together,\u201d she says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t basing my education on what other people said. I thought, \u2018If I can do all this, I can do just about anything.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>She also thought about what she might be able to do to benefit someone else. After retiring from DuPont, earning a master\u2019s degree in Biblical Studies and a doctorate in Divinity prepared her to spread the word worldwide. \u201cPraise is what I do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The impact of her Wilmington College education sent ripples throughout her family. Neither of her parents completed high school, but her daughter and \u2014 as of May 2019 \u2014 her granddaughter have both earned college degrees. \u201cThat\u2019s three generations of educated women,\u201d says Dr. Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While a stroke has limited her ability to travel over the past year, she\u2019s continuing to work with a pastor who\u2019s providing support to Haitian orphanages, and she\u2019s still hoping to bring her message to ministries in South Africa, Switzerland, and Israel again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m blessed that I was able to step up to the plate,\u201d she says, \u201cand I\u2019m blessed to be able to challenge someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Barbara Thomas hopes you know that your goals aren\u2019t subject to prior authorization. That what others tell you is possible doesn\u2019t matter nearly as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[647],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-magazine-fall-2019"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":647,"label":"Magazine Fall 2019"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Dr.-Barbara-Thomas-fixed-640x853-1-360x480.jpg",360,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rebecca Slinger","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rebecca\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":647,"name":"Magazine Fall 2019","slug":"magazine-fall-2019","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1204,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":18,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17519,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions\/17519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}