Ashley Robinson never knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. Even in her wildest dreams, she wouldn’t have guessed the answer: a nonprofit owner, self-published author, professor of social work and education advocate for literacy in Montgomery.
When Robinson was a student in Montgomery Public Schools, she just tried her best to get by. Her mom put her in school at Bear Elementary before it became a magnet, and when The Math, Science and Technology Exploration Center opened there in 1996, Robinson naturally fell into the BrewTech feeder pattern.
Of course, the curriculum was difficult, and while she passed every class, she didn’t particularly enjoy any of them. At the time, she was also enduring abuse in her home life. Eventually, Robinson left the magnet system and moved to what was then Jefferson Davis High School. Graduation day came along, and she hadn’t applied to a single college or technical school.
The thought hadn’t even crossed her mind. Luckily, though, her mother had decided to submit an application for her to Alabama State University. A few weeks after graduation, Robinson remembers her mother hauling her out of bed and saying, “Get up. We’re enrolling you in school.”