When she was 10 years old, Colenthia Hunter studied the diplomas on her aunt Freddie Mae Hill's wall. She pointed to the master's degree. ''Is there anything higher than that?'' she asked.

''Yes, there's a Ph.D.,'' her aunt said. ''Then I'm going to get it,'' Colenthia replied.

Dr. Colenthia Hunter smiles at the thought now, remembering the little girl who would not be denied. ''That's why I was always out there. I was always reaching,'' she says quietly.

It would take a long reach and a strong grasp to overcome the hurdles in her path. But Dr. Hunter would earn her doctorate in education and counseling, develop a distinguished career in Cincinnati Public Schools and compile an accomplished list of volunteerism.

For it, she would be selected a 1996 Enquirer Woman of the Year.

Her nominators call her a leader and visionary, a woman who has poured more than three decades of energy and effort into issues that affect children.

Her closest friends mention her quick insight, sound judgment and iron will.

Although she retired as director of guidance in Cincinnati Public Schools in 1992, her counseling career has never ended. Last fall, she volunteered three weeks to help start the school year at Withrow High School. She went one-on-one with students, helping them map out a way to complete high school and then make plans beyond it.

When she finished a session with one new student, the girl's grandmother sat crying, touched that a stranger would devote so much time to unraveling her granddaughter's transportation and scheduling problems.

''Often her response to a situation offers a path not seen or thought of,'' friend Nikki Tilford writes in nominating her. Ms. Tilford describes Dr. Hunter as ''a benevolent spirit that sheds light wherever she goes.''

Now, like her crystal and mirror-filled home in Symmes Township, life shines brightly for Colenthia Hunter. But childhood held some dark days for Colenthia Hill, one of a few African-American students in mostly white Madison, Wis.

She was the fourth of nine children in a well-respected family known for their thriving produce business. She and her siblings were known for their hard work and model behavior. Yet young Colenthia sometimes felt invisible in class.

''If I raised my hand, the teacher conveniently didn't see it,'' she says. ''If I didn't raise my hand, she'd call on me to embarrass me. I was just a child, but I realized what was happening.''

Another child might have grown up bitter. Colenthia simply poured herself into her work, taking as a maxim the words her mother told her over and over: ''Can't doesn't live here.''

Elementary school was softball, tennis, ice skating and her first volunteer work for the American Cancer Society. High school was a top college-prep program and a thick list of achievements.

College was immersion in an African-American student body at Central State University, serving as editor of the yearbook and student newspaper.

Later, as a young English teacher at Bloom Middle School in West End, she found herself giving back the guidance and attention she had been given as a child. School dismissed at 3 p.m. At 4 o'clock, students were still huddled around her desk talking. Mary Boike, a guidance counselor, could see she was destined for a career in the guidance department.

''She was one of the younger teachers, and the students felt close to her and could relate to her,'' her friend says. ''She had come from an environment where she had been encouraged to seek out an education and to make something of her life, and that's what she wanted to pass on to them.''

After earning a master's degree in counseling from Xavier University and later a doctorate from the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Hunter rose steadily through the administrative ranks in Cincinnati schools, holding positions including assistant principal, associate director of support services and eventually director of guidance for the 51,000-pupil district.

Dr. Hunter's work quickly spilled out of the schools and into dozens of agencies that support young people. Fellow volunteers say her style was still pure Colenthia: assess the situation honestly, be courageous and do what needs to be done to help kids.

''We have to help each child become an independent person who can think and feel and care for themselves. We've got to stop turning out illiterate kids - we're just flushing them down out onto the street.''

To help with the effort, she serves on boards of the Queen City Foundation, Cincinnati Consortium for Family Development, Cincinnati Speech and Hearing Center and the YWCA. As a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Women with a Purpose and the Women's Alliance, she has helped plan and fund cultural and educational opportunities for underprivileged children.

Where and who they are makes no difference to Dr. Hunter. She treats them all as her own.

''My brother and I always knew we were the first kids in her life, but we weren't the only ones,'' her son, Thomas Hunter Jr., says. ''There were always lots of others under her guidance and concern.''

Dr. Hunter says she is just continuing a family tradition.

At age 10, she was invited to the ''adult table'' at family dinner parties. But first, she had to pass through her Aunt Freddie Mae's personal preparatory school - learning grooming, manners, conversation skills, even food presentation.

''It was drilled into me, and at the time, I didn't like it,'' she says with a laugh. ''But my aunt knew we had to be prepared for every situation in life.

''To this day,'' she adds quietly, ''I can go anywhere, and I'm always comfortable. That's what I want for all children.''

The Enquirer's Women of the Year will be honored noon Wednesday at a luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Fifth and Elm streets. Tickets, $15, must be purchased in advance; call 768-8104, 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4:30 p.m. through Monday. Tickets also can be purchased in person during these hours on the 20th floor of The Enquirer building, Third and Elm streets.

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