FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- Four of Fort Drum's own proudly walked across the stage of the State University of New York at Potsdam during the school's master's degree commencement ceremony May 18. The four, who had begun the program as acquaintances, graduated as a family -- each as proud of their cohorts' achievements as they were their own.
The graduates -- two Department of Defense civilian employees and two contracted employees -- represent a diverse cross-section of Fort Drum. Their goals in pursuing higher education were as vastly different as the roles they fulfill in their daily work. Each enrolled, without knowledge of the others, in the same degree program -- a Master's of Science in Education in Communication Tech- nology.
Donna Orvis, chief of marketing for Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, had wanted to obtain her master's degree for some time, but she had waited until the timing was right for herself and her family.
"I was at a point in my life where I could go back to school because my children were grown," Orvis said. "I'm always looking to challenge myself, and this seemed like a perfect fit."
As director of the Civilian Personnel Advisory Center, Denise Wallace has devoted years to helping civilian employees achieve their highest potential. She saw the program as an opportunity to challenge herself and to hone skills that would be beneficial to her in her role at CPAC.
"When I saw the program advertised, I thought -- 'I can learn something that applies to what I'm doing here at work,'" Wallace said.
George Dalrymple, a veterans service officer for the New York State Division of Veterans Affairs, admitted that his original motivation for obtaining his degree was to fulfill a stipulation of his employment.
A retired noncommissioned officer in charge of the 10th Mountain Division Chaplain Corps, Dalrymple possessed a wealth of experience in working with military men and women. He looked at graduate school as an opportunity to sharpen his skills in writing and public speaking, and in presenting information to nonmilitary individuals.
"I'm used to giving briefings for the military. That's vastly different from a presentation in the civilian sector," Dalrymple said.
The youngest member of the group, Tom Maxon serves as the head of contracting staff for information technology at the Mission Training Complex. He chose the program because it involved the two areas most vital to his job.
"The program had both an organizational management and an informational technology aspect to it," Maxon said. "It seemed to mesh very well with what I was working on."
Although the program is offered through SUNY Potsdam, classes were held at the Extended Education building on the Jefferson Community College campus in Watertown.
Students within the Communication Technology program work in groups, called cohorts.
Although the majority of assignments are individual work, cohort members are expected to participate in online and class discussions of the learning material covered in each class.
All four graduates attributed their high level of achievement to this learning-community approach.
"We were able to collaborate with one another on this material despite the fact that we work in very different areas," Maxon said.
The program is taught in a hybrid approach, where content is delivered both online and in person. It was this flexibility in scheduling that initially attracted each of the four to this particular program.
Balancing family life, full-time jobs and schoolwork was difficult at times. It required careful planning, and sacrifice on the part of the graduates and their families alike.
Each touted the crucial support that their spouses and family members provided as invaluable in their achievement. Maxon's wife, Lindsey, completed the same course of study and graduated alongside her husband.
Dalrymple, Orvis and Wallace all emphasized that pursuing higher education was a means of showing their children the importance of constantly challenging themselves.
"I think part of (the motivation was) being good role models for our families," Wallace said. She and her son Jacob often sat together in the kitchen, both working on their respective homework assignments.
"Setting an example for my grown daughters that you've always got to challenge yourself was important," Orvis added.
As they looked out at their families during the graduation ceremony, each of the four graduates had the opportunity to reflect on their feelings at the start of the program.
Nervous about being able to devote the time needed to be successful in their coursework while working full-time and still finding time for their families, each graduate said that things went much more smoothly than they had envisioned. The sense of accomplishment far outweighed the in- itial fears that each student had felt on the first day of class.
"You can always find reasons not to (do something)," Dalrymple said. "You've just got to take that plunge. Once you get into the routine, it's not as bad as you thought when you were standing on the edge."
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