Paragraph: (Society_Law_and_Justice/oanc-Law_Award_from_College-0.txt)
Sent 1: Cathy Wallace did not always know what she wanted to be when she grew up.
Sent 2: She wanted to help people, but did not know exactly how.
Sent 3: A suggestion from friends sparked her interest.
Sent 4: "When I was in college, I thought I wanted to be a doctor," she said.
Sent 5: "I found I didn't want to do that and realized an interest in psychology.
Sent 6: I didn't know what I wanted to do, but all my friends thought I should go into law because I was always on a soapbox.
Sent 7: I decided to try it."
Sent 8: Recently, Wallace received the Outstanding Woman Lawyer in Public Interest Law Award.
Sent 9: The award was voted on and presented by the women's caucus of West Virginia University College of Law.
Sent 10: Wallace, 38, called Gastonia home from the age of 8 until she graduated from Hunter Huss High School in 1983.
Sent 11: Her parents, Carter Bond, 66, and Carol Bond, 59, are still residents of Gastonia.
Sent 12: From Hunter Huss, she moved on to pursue a degree at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer.
Sent 13: After graduation from Pfeiffer in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in both biology and psychology, she worked as legal secretary for attorney Louis A. Bledsoe Jr. for a year and a half.
Sent 14: "Working for Louis Bledsoe was a pivotal moment," she said.
Sent 15: "That was when I decided to go into the practice of law."
Sent 16: She received her law degree at the University of Arkansas in 1992 and began her legal career in Public Defender Corp. in Princeton.
Sent 17: She also taught criminal justice classes at Bluefield College in West Virginia.
Sent 18: Wallace lives in Athens, W. Va., with her husband Rob, 37, and her daughters Rachel, 11, and Claire, 5.