When the Stars Aligned for Wendy McColskey 

There are sometimes special moments in our lives when the almost unbelievable happens.  For NWTO member Wendy McColskey, that moment occurred two years ago, in September 2019.  In one week, a top personal tennis and career success were realized.

As a member of a tennis family (We featured her Grandmother’s Tennis Tree narrative in our May newsletter.), Wendy grew up playing Junior Tennis in FL with a ranking of around #5 from ages 12 to 18.  After playing college tennis at Vanderbilt and Eckerd, Wendy talked her sister, Dale, and another friend into a six-month European Adventure where they traveled from tournament to tournament.  Of this time, Wendy says “the people we met, the wins, the losses, and lessons learned about competing day in and day out contributed to a life philosophy that it’s about the journey taken, not about any particular outcomes or results realized.”

Graduate school, marriage, kids and career put tennis in the back seat for a few years until, as an empty nester in her 50s, Wendy, encouraged by Brenda Carter and Cindy Babb, played on the Southern Intersectional Team and was chosen to play on the Women’s 60s US Team in the World Team Championships in La Baule, France in 2015.  That was followed by more years on 60/65 Cup Teams, playing in Helsinki, Orlando, and Umag, Croatia.  She stayed at these locations each time to play the World Individual Championships in her age group the week following the World Team Championships.  Given the stiff competition, Wendy says she didn’t really expect to ever win but (insert music here) in September 2019, Wendy made it through to win the 65s World Individual Championship in Umag, Croatia.  Unexpected success #1--realized!!

In terms of a career, after the Europe adventure, Wendy returned to school and got her Masters in Social Psychology from the University of Florida and her PhD from Ohio State University in Educational Research and Evaluation.  A few years later, Wendy found her “dream job” working at the intersection of educational research and practice/policy at the SERVE Center at UNC at Greensboro. This Center was established in 1991 with a mission of supporting educators in six southeastern states.  Wendy was involved from the beginning, providing leadership for R&D projects and working collaboratively with school district partners.  Wendy says “my passion for this work and the great people I worked with ended up keeping me at SERVE for 30 years and counting.  I was lucky to have found the perfect fit for my interests and skills.”

The SERVE Center was funded by winning grants from the U.S. Dept. of Education for four consecutive 5-year spans from 1991-2011, providing support in the Southeast on a wide range of educational issues, policies and programs.  In 2019, Wendy and several co-workers at SERVE decided to try a long-shot and compete for a 5-year grant for which they had competed and lost 3 previous times. This grant was for a Regional Comprehensive Center to support NC, SC, and GA to help state departments of education implement key improvement initiatives more effectively.  Wendy was in charge of writing the grant proposal for this highly sought-after source of funding for applying research and evaluation to educational policies and practice.

And as you may have guessed, in September 2019 while playing in the World Individual Championships in Umag, Croatia, Wendy found out they had won the grant.  Unexpected success #2--realized!  Wendy’s work and tennis stars aligned in a big and unexpected way in a single week.  Wendy now serves as the half-time Associate Director of the Center, a job that allows her time to play tennis and see kids and grandkids regularly.

NWTO congratulates Wendy on a successful career in educational research culminating in the RCC grant win and for winning the 65s World Individual Championship, a top prize for an amateur tennis player.