How To Make Your DREAMS COME TRUE

Ebony, August, 2000 by Zondra Hughes

CYNTHIA UNDERWOOD

From the projects to top state job

CYNTHIA Underwood survived childhood poverty, exhausting 18-hour workdays and a devastating divorce. Today, the 40-year-old attorney is the first African-American and the first female director of the individual and corporate tax division of the Alabama Department of Revenue.

Underwood says her hardknocks environment gave her the will not only to survive, but to succeed as well.

"If I could describe my childhood in one word, it would be `poor,'" she says. "I grew up in the Trenholm Court housing project in Montgomery, Ala., where I had to learn survival techniques in order to get by and to shield myself from fights and bad influences."

By the time she was 12, Underwood was plotting her escape from the gang-infested neighborhood.

"I knew at an early age that I wanted to better my standard of living, and I was working toward going to college at age 12," she says.

Underwood graduated at the top of her class and then attended the University of Alabama, where she received her bachelor's degree in accounting. She later enrolled in the University of Alabama at Birmingham and earned her master's degree in accounting.

While attending law school at the Birmingham School of law, her marriage collapsed. "I hate to fail at anything, and the last thing I ever thought was that I would fail at my marriage," she says.

Describing the ordeal as one of the "most trying times in my life," Underwood quit law school and moved to Montgomery with her mother. She later returned to law school but was sidetracked when her sister became seriously ill, suffering from a brain tumor. Undaunted, Underwood cared for her sister while attending school.

"I would rise at 5:00 a.m., take care of my sister's needs and then go off to school," she recalls. "I would come home in the afternoon to see to her, then return to school. I would get home around 9 p.m., do homework and prepare dinner, and then I would make it to bed around midnight."

Underwood says juggling the dual roles of law student and caretaker for her sister, whose condition is now in remission, wasn't a burden. "I just don't consider that period to be a significant part of my life," she says.

Today, as in the old days, she rises early--this time to care for her new baby. After law school, Underwood entered an adoption program; she has one child now and is seeking another.

"Motherhood is the most challenging thing I have ever done. But I've risen to the challenge," she says.

Underwood offers sage advice to others facing the challenges of daily life: "Continue to pursue your dreams, and trust in God to guide you."