 Shoshana Brackett/SDN The list of May Mississippi State graduates includes Sylvia Clark, right, and JoLee Clark, left. The mother-daughter duo completed their bachelors degrees together and even took a couple of classes together during their time at the school. By SHOSHANA BRACKETT
Starkville Daily News
The typical college graduate starts his or her studies soon after high school and finishes within a few years.
Sylvia and JoLee Clark of Slate Springs in Calhoun County are not typical college students.
Sylvia, 54, graduated Friday with a bachelor's of science in agricultural information science, while her daughter, JoLee, 30, graduated Saturday with a bachelor of science in interdisciplinary studies with a focus on communication and technology.
Besides graduating together this month, the pair has also taken two college courses together and rented a house together for the past year.
Her degree, Sylvia said, is the perfect fit for her interests and previous work.
Sylvia, who grew up on a farm and married a farmer husband, Norman, has a love for agriculture in the state. She especially loves promoting sweet potatoes since her husband raises them and the family has a business in Vardaman.
"I really think agriculture is the invisible industry," Sylvia said.
Sylvia's passion is to promote agriculture, and she sees a need for agricultural reporting throughout the year, not just in times of crisis.
"I'm crazy about sweet potatoes because they're so nutritious for you," Sylvia said.
She is the Farm Bureau Women's Chairman in Calhoun County and has attended several national conventions promoting sweet potatoes.
Keeping true to her agricultural roots and interests, Sylvia completed an internship in the MSU Office of Agricultural Communications while studying at MSU.
JoLee earned an associate's degree from Northeast Mississippi Community College in 1997 and began her studies at MSU but quit school to move to Nashville where she worked for several years.
With the idea of completing her degree in the back of her mind, JoLee decided to return to MSU and finish her degree after her mother went back to school.
Sylvia, mother of three, including another daughter, Shawn, and a son, Andy, began her college studies as a 17-year-old at Wood College in Mathiston.
At age 18, she married her husband, and started a family.
"I ended up thinking I had enough school," she said.
But, a love of learning instilled in her by her mother kept her seeking educational opportunities throughout her life.
"Education and learning has always been exciting for me," Sylvia said. "It's all been fun."
In 1981, Sylvia completed her associate's of arts at Wood College and later took some courses at the University of Mississippi.
As she stayed busy raising her family and helping run the family store in Slate Springs, Sylvia continued to increase her knowledge base through various classes offered in her county. She and JoLee also took a computer course at Wood College when computers were becoming a part of everyday life.
"I just kept an interest in education all my life," Sylvia said.
After her children grew up and moved out of the house, Sylvia decided it was time to finish what she started many years before.
"It seemed like the time to do it," she said. "My time."
Even with her outgoing, bubbly personality, Sylvia had a few worries about starting college as an older student.
"I was afraid at first that the young people would ostracize me," she said.
But, fellow students welcomed her, and she often voiced her opinions in her classes.
"I've made so many young friends, and in extension that makes me feel young," Sylvia said. "It's been a wonderful experience."
JoLee, who would like to work in desktop publishing or graphic design, possibly in the music industry in Nashville, returned to MSU in May 2007 with 39 credits left in order to graduate.
The mother and daughter moved in together when JoLee returned to school last year.
Living together had its ups and downs, but Sylvia and JoLee, both night owls, maintained similar schedules and lucked out that they usually did not have stressful weeks at the same time.
Though the two look alike and share some of the same thoughts, they also have different personalities and opinions on many issues. And even if they say the same thing, Sylvia said they may mean two completely different things because of differing interpretations.
Sylvia and JoLee took a mass media and society course and a plant science course together in the past year.
"I think that was the funniest class to take together," JoLee said of mass media and society.
In that course, much discussion revolves around television and movies, and as the oldest member of the class, even older than the instructor, Sylvia's opinions or reactions were often different than those of other students, including JoLee.
The teacher also would sometimes defer to Sylvia about historical matters, JoLee said, since she was older.
"I would sit behind her and just laugh when he asked her those things," JoLee said.
Though she's thrilled to have finished her last exam, JoLee said she might consider getting a master's degree to better her career goals. Sylvia credits her parents, Irby and Bobbie Shaw of Eupora, for guiding her to this point in her life.
"She gave me the love for education," said Sylvia of her mother who worked as an elementary school teacher and later as a newspaper society editor.
Sylvia also credits her father for instilling a strong work ethic in her.
"My daddy was the most determined person you ever saw," she said. "I'm like Daddy. If you give me a job, I'm going to do it."
JoLee also credits her grandmother for teaching her, especially about English.
"She really pounded English into me and how to write," JoLee said.
JoLee and Sylvia also credit Connie and John Forde for helping make JoLee's last year a success and helping her complete her degree in a timely fashion.
Connie Forde is a professor in instructional systems and workforce development and helped JoLee with the technology side of her degree while John Forde, head of the communication department, guided JoLee through completing the requirements for that portion of her degree.
"I pretty much think they hung the moon," JoLee said.
Now, several years after beginning their educational journeys, Sylvia and JoLee are thrilled to be through and ready for what life brings next.
"I gave my mom a bookmark last year for Mother's Day that said, 'It is never too late to become what you might have been," JoLee said. "I think that sums us up pretty well." |
