Before Sheila McCoy decided to quit her job as an accountant and go back to school to earn her Cosmetology Certificate at College of The Albemarle (COA), she knew exactly what her life would look like after graduation.

And just days after her graduation, she made sure that vision came true. She became a co-owner of the hair salon where she has been cutting hair for the past two years, Sheik Salon in Elizabeth City, and even had picked out her business partner, longtime friend and fellow COA Cosmetology alumni, Kelly Whidbee.

And McCoy hasn’t looked back since.

“It had always been on my mind,” McCoy said, referring to her lifelong desire to become a hair stylist. “I had met Kelly several years prior — she had cut my hair and we became good friends.”

McCoy even worked for a short time as a receptionist at Kelly’s former hair salon, which is one of the reasons McCoy began thinking about pursuing her sidelined dream again.

Because she had dropped out of high school during her junior year, McCoy began studying for her High School Equivalency Diploma at COA before getting a job offer in Williamston, North Carolina and transferring her studies to Martin Community College. After getting her GED, McCoy began working as an accountant at a State Employee Credit Union where she remained for seven years. Eventually, she got married, gave birth to three children and began working at a local law firm as an accountant.

After nine years in accounting, McCoy talked to her husband about quitting her job and pursuing her cosmetology license.

“It was heavy on my mind and I started researching some things,” McCoy said. “I qualified for financial aid at COA, which helped tremendously.”

The yearlong cosmetology program meant that McCoy would be in class Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“I was working at the time so I had to take a leap of faith,” she said.

McCoy maintained a 4.0 grade-point average both semesters at the community college and the day before she graduated, Sheik Salon opened for business. She had to wait for her cosmetology license to come through, but once it did, McCoy’s vision finally became a reality.

“I’m definitely glad I decided to go with it,” McCoy said. “The salon opened in May 2013 and we’re doing great. We’re very, very thankful.”