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Jane Reeve and her two daughters worked toward their degrees together. Reeve receives her Bachelor of Professional Studies degree today. |
Jane Reeve, 46, will be the first in her extended family to receive a bachelor's degree, but didn't want to attend graduation today at the University of Mary Washington.
Forget all the pomp, she thought. But her family wouldn't hear of it.
"My sister and I kind of bullied her into it and told her that if she didn't walk, we would walk her," said Sabrina Tolson, 28, the older of Reeve's two children.
Sabrina and her sister, Rebecca Reeve, 19, know how hard their mom worked for her Bachelor of Professional Studies degree at UMW's College of Graduate and Professional Studies in southern Stafford County. The three have been attending college at the same time.
Sometimes they would sit in Jane's living room and finish up homework on their laptop computers. They helped one another, but also took part in a friendly competition over who could graduate with the highest grade-point average.
"There's one of us who is slightly edging out the others," said Jane, a Stafford native and computer operations manager for Spotsylvania County's information technology department, where she has worked for 17 years.
That's all she can say, she said with a laugh.
"The competition is not over until each one of them graduates with a four-year degree."
Sabrina, who is married with three children, lives in Yorktown and takes distance-learning courses from Germanna Community College. She expects to receive her associate degree next fall and enroll in another college.
Rebecca is a rising junior at Longwood University, majoring in psychology.
"I don't know how she did it, honestly," she said of her mom. "I was still in high school when she started, and she was at every one of my softball and basketball games."
Jane received her associate degree from Germanna before enrolling at UMW. She had been putting off her education, but enjoyed her first class--an American history course.
"If that hadn't been a good experience, I would've turned around, walked away and never come back," she said. She took four or five classes a semester while working at least 40 hours a week.
Sabrina, who signed up for the Air Force after high school, said her mom's example motivated her to not delay college any longer.
That's one of a couple of reasons, Jane said. "I just think that, if nothing else, it's the competition."
Still, her daughters don't hesitate to ask their mom to proof a paper, which has its drawbacks.
"They have this thing about red ink now," Jane said with a smile. "I'll go through their papers and help them rearrange their sentences and it will end up being this huge thing of red."
Last Thursday, Jane turned in her last assignment, a group project on improving service at McDonald's. She's hoping the degree will lead to professional advancement.
And although she'd be fine with receiving her diploma in the mail, she's glad her family will watch her graduate.
"I think it helps give my daughters and anyone else that incentive to say, 'Hey, I'm going to be next,'" she said.
Jeff Branscome: 540/374-5402
Email: jbranscome@freelancestar.com
