Mississippi woman was a homeless, couch-surfing alcoholic. Now she’s a Lyceum Scholar Award winner with a full ride to Ole Miss.

The University of Mississippi considered such factors as community service, academic excellence, leadership abilities and perseverance in selecting the 2021 Lyceum Scholar Awards winners. Sarah Warnock/MCIR

By Julie Whitehead
Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting

After a series of traumatic pregnancies, Stacey Spiehler began a descent into alcoholism during a bout of mania.

“It was either pick up a bottle or pick up a gun. And I found the bottle first,” Spiehler says. “Once I started drinking in July 2012, I just didn’t stop.”

She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder three years earlier.

“I had an ectopic pregnancy, my son was born with cerebral palsy and autism, and I had a miscarriage,” Spiehler said.

She was admitted to a treatment facility in Jackson and received counseling medication and therapy for the bipolar symptoms.

But homelessness and forced separation from her son followed before she began a recovery that continues.

Today, Spiehler, 40, has gone from a homeless, couch-surfing alcoholic in 2015 to taking charge of her life and competing with hundreds of applicants to win a full tuition scholarship to the University of Mississippi in Oxford through one of the 2021 Lyceum Scholar Awards.

“Stacey Spiehler is undoubtedly one of the most inspiring people I have ever had the privilege of working with,” said Amie Bernstein, transfer admissions counselor at Ole Miss.

Stacey Spiehle, 40. who has bipolar disorder and battled alcoholism after a series of traumatic pregnancies, has reclaimed control of her life. She has won a full tuition scholarship to the University of Mississippi in Oxford through one of the 2021 Lyceum Scholar Awards. Sarah Warnock/MCIR

Spiehler was contacted on April 1 with the news that she had won one of the coveted spots. She was so shocked she wondered if it was an April Fool’s Day prank. Bernstein assured her that was not the case.

”The Lyceum Award is our most prestigious transfer scholarship and only the top 15 incoming students receive this honor. Students are selected based on their responses to our community college scholarship application, which includes an essay discussing a significant endeavor,” Bernstein said.

Factors considered in the scoring are community service, academic excellence, leadership abilities and perseverance, she said.

Spiehler has certainly persevered through quite a lot in her lifetime.

Hiding her problems with alcohol became a preoccupation. “I continued with treatment. Treatment with my counseling, and seeing my psychiatrist and even going into (an intensive outpatient center). But I continued to drink the whole time. I didn’t have to work on my trauma or my stability because if it got too hard, I could just get wasted,” Speilher said.

She hid the extent of her problems with alcohol until a domestic violence arrest in late 2015 sent her to a homeless shelter, Matt’s House in Jackson, and being prohibited from all contact with her young son. She was at Matt’s house until Jan 1, 2016, with stints in Brentwood Behavioral Health for evaluation and St. Dominic’s Hospital for an overdose of Klonopin, which is used to control panic attacks. “2015 was the last really bad part of my addiction,” Speihler said.

After leaving Matt’s House, she went back to live with her mother until she went to a rehabilitation center in Chicago. She and her husband stayed married so she could continue on his health insurance. They divorced three years ago. 

“There was no hope of reconciliation because of what I had done,” Speihler said.

After Chicago, Speihler was in Harbor House in Jackson for two months, then a sober living environment at Grace House in Jackson from June 2016 to February 2018.

After living in Brandon, Speihler resolved to go back to school and earn a degree in journalism. She said that the investigative reporting that led to the successful prosecution of Edgar Ray Killen in 2005 in the 1964 slaying of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County made an impact on her. “That was the first time I realized that journalism was really important,” Speihler said.

She had first been accepted into Ole Miss in 1998 but went to the University of New Orleans instead. She had applied to Hinds Community College twice, once in 2015 and again in 2018, but didn’t follow through with attending classes. “In 2019, I said even though it’s scary, I’m still going to do it,” Speihler said.

She started out at Northwest Mississippi Community College at the Oxford branch and achieved a 3.9 GPA there, taking her prerequisite courses. “I’ve only gotten one B,” she laughed. To go to Ole Miss, she filled out the community college transfer scholarship application. The Lyceum Scholarship Award covers her next two years of tuition, and her Phi Theta Kappa Scholarship covers her books, fees and living expenses.

For her application essay, she wrote about her struggles with her son at the school he had last attended and how hard she had to fight to get his needs met.

“Stacey’s story is where resilience and tenacity meet community and individual empowerment. Her leadership experience and involvement successes are well rounded, widespread, and there is no doubt Stacey will continue to positively impact others’ lives through her advocacy work. We are so excited to welcome her on campus and see the amazing things she will do through her educational career and beyond,” Bernstein said.

Joy Hogge, executive director for Families as Allies, a statewide organization run by families for families of children with behavioral health challenges, has seen Speihler’s volunteer work and advocacy firsthand.

“I think what I most admire about her is that even when she’s completely scared, she’s totally fearless, especially for anything having to do with her child. And in those moments, she’s composed and calm, confidently advocating with her mom heart and her Stacey mind,” Hogge said. “Stacey has been part of us for several years, on the board for three and she’s president elect. She’s amazing. And she readily shares her amazing-ness with others, including parents going through the same thing.”

Speihler’s plans for her career after Ole Miss are taking up work researching and writing about the “school-to-prison pipeline” and to continue her advocacy work on behalf of disabled children and addicted individuals. “My foundation is addiction recovery,” Speihler said.

She credits her recovery to her local 12-step program, which she attends several times a week, and continued treatment at Communicare, the area state mental health center she has gone to for counseling and medication management several times a month since September 2019.

“I didn’t have insurance when I first moved here. They helped me through a grant for people with substance use disorders in the past,” she said.

During the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, she continued treatment through telehealth.

The scholarships are important to Speihler for several reasons.

“It’s not just the relief of not having to pay for college. It’s the recognition from the school that I admire so much and that so many people that I admire came from it. It’s a sign that they want me there pretty badly,” Speihler said.

“Had I not been forced into addiction recovery and chosen to do it, I would not have any of this.”

This story was produced by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization that seeks to inform, educate and empower Mississippians in their communities through the use of investigative journalism. Sign up for our newsletter. Email Julie Whitehead at julie.whitehead.mcir@gmail.com.