Age: 34<\/strong><\/p>\nSir Wilfred Grenfell said, “The service we render to others is the rent we pay for our room on earth.” I pay my rent by serving on the Education Council of the United Way, Junior League of Columbia, Jack & Jill of Columbia, Heyward Career and Technology Board, Power in Changing Diaper Bank Board, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Main Street Rotary Club and as a Girl Scouts volunteer. These organizations allow me to utilize my passion for children and education, and serve as an advocate and a leader in my community.<\/p>\n
I am most proud of the two beautiful girls my husband Kobie and I are blessed to have: Alana (3) and Ariah (8 months).<\/p>\n
Professionally, my greatest accomplishment is serving as a children’s author. Through my book series, I use my character Tori to enhance the love for learning and literacy for early readers through education. I eagerly anticipate the release of two upcoming titles.<\/p>\n
I am also proud of being a franchise owner of Wine & Design Columbia, a sip and paint studio that brings families, friends, kids and communities together through fun and creativity, as well as serving as a trustee for my beloved alma mater, Winthrop University.<\/p>\n
My future goals include impacting the field of education through research, service and advocacy. Through the Magic of Learning Foundation, I seek to meet the needs of children and families in our community and state.<\/p>\n
I am truly honored and humbled to be a recipient of this award.<\/p>\n
Nominator Quote: “ She has been a devoted volunteer who has shown exceptional commitment to our community by freely giving her time and energy to serve others.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Columbia Business Monthly Best & Brightest 35 and Under awards Wine & Design studio owner, Ashlye Wilkerson for the second year in a row! 2017-2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-in-the-news"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanddesign.com\/wakeforest-nc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}