Mentors Parson, Staley receive Julia Hardy Awards

ASHEBORO — Krystal Parson and Shaune Staley were honored April 7 with the Julia Hardy Outstanding Mentor Award.

The annual award was established to recognize two African-American female role models/mentors in the Asheboro East Side Community during the month of March, which is Women’s History Month.

Those who qualify for the honor must have gone above and beyond in helping young African-American females in their development and growth as they pursue the journey of education and womanhood. Qualifications for this award are modeled after ideals Julia Ella Morgan Hardy spent most of her life exhibiting and encouraging in the Asheboro East Side Community.

Krystal Parson

Krystal Parson fulfills those attributes primarily at Asheboro High School, where she is a math inclusion teacher working with special needs students. This is her fourth year at AHS and her 13th year in education.

“This year, I’m working with girls who created a step team,” Parson said. “Last year ,I was the assistant varsity cheerleading coach.”

Even when she’s not teaching class, Parson makes herself available to students. At her desk, she’s known as a “resource for snacks, a listening ear, help with work, problem-solve life and help find which way is up.

“I am humbled and very honored knowing Hardy’s legacy and following in her footsteps in education,” Parson said. “While I didn’t know her, my mom speaks of her and the respect she held in the community. It’s an honor to be standing on her shoulders. I’m trying to be an inspiration and role model, letting young people know someone believes in them.”

Shaune Stanley

Shaune Staley does most of her mentoring through First Pentecostal Church of Asheboro, which she and her husband, Dean Staley, pastor.

“We do a lot of women’s ministry at our church,” she said. “I’m president of Women of God and we do a lot of outreach for women and children.” That includes providing food for the residents of Lydia’s House, a shelter for women and children. 

Staley also is involved in a women’s prison ministry involving seven prisons/jails in the area. “I go in to minister to them,” she said.

Her organization also works with the Family Crisis Center and has held fund-raisers called Diamonds & Pearls for the shelter. “We minister to single women in the community who are struggling.”

Staley said she is a preacher and teacher and is finishing up her master’s degree in Christian education with Zoe Fellowship Bible College in Charlotte. That degree will offer her more opportunities in ministry.

With her master’s degree fulfilled, Staley will begin work on her doctorate in Christian counseling. She said that’s a requirement for her to open a youth leadership academy, which is on her heart to establish.

“I love teaching and want to be able to teach young people and single women in need,” she said.