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Student’s Dreams Become Reality
4/23/2007
 It was dark in the downtown parking garage in 1993 as UST alumna Sherrel A. Conway-Keys hurried to punch in at her telecommunications job at EDS just before her 6:30 a.m. start time. The night before, the garage management had installed low-hanging heavy steel signs that were invisible in the pitch-black of pre-dawn. Conway-Keys’ head hit one of the signs so hard that she was immediately plunged into excruciating pain as she fell to the concrete. In that split second, her once photographic memory dissolved, to be replaced by a debilitating short-term memory loss and injuries to her spine.
The Houston native’s life drastically changed. Unable to work, she fell into deep depression. EDS encouraged her to apply for Houston Community College’s “Capable and Motivated” coping and retraining course, and she became one of 27 out of 2,700 applicants to be accepted. “You can get over it,” was the instructor’s mantra, which Conway-Keys adopted for herself.
The head of HCC’s real estate department, with whom Conway-Keys frequently chatted during breaks, recruited her for the real estate program, and she received her associate’s degree at the top of her class.
On Mother’s Day in 1997 as Conway-Keys’ mother lay on her deathbed, she made her daughter promise to complete her college education, which Conway-Keys had put on hold when she and her first husband eloped in 1966.
She enrolled at UST in 2000 on a scholarship, which she calls the best thing that ever happened to her. It was also during one of the hardest times in her life – her younger sister had died two days earlier of a heart attack. In the admissions office that first day at UST, she met fellow student Johnnie F. Johnson, now a lifelong friend, who at the time helped her organize her academic schedule and supported her in her sorrow.
And she received invaluable help from UST’s office of Counseling and Disability Services, through which students with disabilities can request academic accommodation for conditions that affect them in the learning environment. The goal of Disability Services is to provide appropriate accommodation for students in a friendly and supportive atmosphere that will assist them in accomplishing their academic goals.
Conway-Keys received a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts with concentrations in philosophy and theology, graduating cum laude – but she didn’t stop there. She went on to get her master’s degree in liberal arts with concentrations in history and philosophy.
“I got the undergraduate degree for my mother and the master’s for myself,” she says. Her friends at school also helped her after Dec. 3, 2001, when her husband, Rodney Keys, got the news that his employer, Enron, had imploded, wiping out his investments and savings. His health problems had forced him on disability – and he coped with his own devastating depression. Still, he never missed a chance to encourage and support his wife. “A lot of couples (who worked at Enron) split up after that happened,” Conway-Keys said. “But because we are Christians, we were able to hang on and still love each other even more each day.”
She still enjoys her work as a real estate agent, but her long-term dream had been to teach history, philosophy and real estate at HCC. She was recently accredited in all three subjects and plans to begin teaching this fall. She traces her success back to that day seven years ago when she became part of the St. Thomas community and its supportive network.
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