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When the results came back, Ella had won a scholarship to nearby St. Paul's College, one of 39 historically black institutions supported by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), an organization dedicated to reducing financial barriers to higher education. Ella could barely believe it. "This was the turning point of my whole life," she says. "I got my foot in the door. It gave me a great sense of confidence." Her father had left school after the third grade; her mother had finished the seventh.
College wasn't easy. At the end of the first semester, Ella lost her scholarship after doing poorly on a world-history exam. But she didn't give up. She applied for student loans and worked two jobs: in the nursery school on campus during the week and in a barbecue spot all weekend. In the summers, she taught in the Head Start program and worked at an officers' club on a military base.
Ella graduated with a degree in elementary education on a Sunday in May 1967. Her proud family gave her a small suitcase, which she still has, as a graduation gift. That afternoon, she packed it and hitched a ride to Washington, D.C. On Monday morning, she went downtown to the school board and got a job in the public school system.
At the end of her first year, Ella entered the graduate program at George Washington University and continued to teach. "All my education until then had been segregated," she says. "I needed to prove to myself that I could compete with anyone." She received a master's in education in 1970, the same year she married Ron Smothers, an Army man stationed at the Pentagon. After he left the military, he joined Burger King Corporation as a district manager.
Over the next six years, Ella gave birth to two sons and taught in public schools in Miami; Royal Oak, Michigan; and San Diego. In 1976, after saving $10,000, the family opened its first Burger King in Los Angeles. Eventually Ella stopped teaching, and the couple expanded to six restaurants.
When they divorced, in 1992, Ella was left with two of the franchises, including one in the troubled Watts section of L.A. "I was determined to turn it around," she says, "and I did. Now it's one of my best-performing restaurants." She has since expanded to seven restaurants; this year, she will open the first of ten El Pollo Loco restaurants in the Norfolk area of her home state, Virginia.
In gratitude for what she has been able to achieve, Ella donates to St. Paul's College and the UNCF. And -- no surprise -- she is an ardent champion of the C student. It troubles her that the civic organizations and professional societies she belongs to inevitably choose honor students to receive scholarships. "These students will go on to college," she says. "The ones I want to help are the solid-C students, like I was, who just need help and direction. These are the ones we are losing. That's why any deserving employee in any of my Burger King restaurants who registers for college and needs help paying for it will get help."
Nothing pleases her more than writing a check for $1,000 to cover books and other expenses. Ella has no idea how much money she's given away. She's more interested in helping others achieve. When a young employee was left paraplegic and depressed after a car accident, Ella gave her a computer and an office job and refused to let her drop out of college. Today, Rocio Magdaleno is a first-grade teacher.
"I don't know what happened to Mr. Miller," Ella says today, 48 years after sitting in his classroom. "But he was right."
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*The United Negro College Fund name, logo and slogan herein used with permission of UNCF solely as a means to facilitate linkage to UNCF's website. Reader's Digest use of UNCF's name, logo or slogan for this purpose does not constitue or imply any affiliation with UNCF or the endorsement or approval by UNCF of our products or services or the content of this website. Reader's Digest is solely responsible for the content of this website and the products and services advertised herin.
In honor of Ella Avery-Smothers, Reader's Digest Foundation awarded $100,000 grant to the United Negro College Fund. Submit your Make It Matter story today.
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