MOULTRIE — For many, a lifestyle of literacy begins in pre-kindergarten when letter sounds are first formed and then continues into high school when classics like “To Kill A Mockingbird” are first explored. But sometimes life happens.

Wallace Cooper, known as “Red” by friends and family, learned the hard way in the ninth grade at Pelham High School when he chose to drop out and hit the streets.

By Cooper’s own admission, he has always been a leader. But at a young age, without the benefit of parents who encouraged education, he began leading himself and others into the wrong things.

“I was partying, drinking and drugging and didn’t have time for school. I gave into peer pressure and thought I had no use for school,” said Cooper, now 34.

He lived in Pelham until age 21, at which point he said, “My life turned around.”

Cooper began attending church at the House of God Miracle Temple in Cairo in October 1995. His wife and his pastor encouraged him to make a life change and to begin giving back to the community. He became a lay pastor at the church, leading people to Jesus Christ.

Cooper took his first job at Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1995 where he worked for five years before moving to Florida to work at Security Associates, Inc. in an entry-level position in data entry.

Cooper married his current wife, Terri, in 2003. They returned to Georgia and moved with the Hardees Corporation for a management position in Thomasville in 2006 before transferring to the Moultrie franchise in March 2008 as a first assistant for a short period of time.

But after years without the necessary education, it didn’t take long for Cooper to realize that additional training was needed if he wanted to go any further in any kind of career.

The Moultrie office of the Georgia Department of Labor referred him to Moultrie Technical College to get his GED. The DOL allows unemployment benefit recipients to seek training in lieu of active job hunting. Cooper began attending MTC’s adult education and GED preparation program on May 1, 2008.

Now focused on making a positive impact, Cooper has done just that for the faculty and students at MTC.

“He is a GED teacher’s dream. Point him in the direction he should go, and he is self-motivated to do it,” Douglas Hall, one of Cooper’s adult education instructors, said. “He always asks good questions and doesn’t mind staying after class to figure something out — he’s a quiet leader and a role model for our younger GED students.”

Of MTC, Cooper said, “All my teachers are wonderful.”

Cooper admits that writing is his weakest area in his current studies and says it took extra effort to get his writing scores up to the passing point on the GED exam. He said he learned that the key to better writing scores was through reading, and MTC adult education instructor Penny Redmond encouraged him daily by saying, “You’ve got to read, Wallace — read, read, read.”

Cooper, who said the only book he had ever read was the Holy Bible but who claims he now reads biographies of famous people, gave this bit of advice to others who have dropped out of high school.

“Read and find someone to help you read,” Cooper said. “Come to Moultrie Tech, and they will help you. Now I’m reading like a happy camper.”

Cooper took all parts of the GED exam in August and recently learned that he passed each section, including the writing portion. He plans to apply for acceptance in Moultrie Tech’s practical nursing program for the Collegeís fall quarter beginning in October.

“The greatest thing about it is that as a pastor and a stepfather, I can tell others that they can go back and do the same thing I did to better myself,” Cooper, who has helped raise his three stepchildren, ages 21, 18 and 18, said of his recent success.