Photos by Ralph Freso / Wednesday afternoon slideshow
They knew one another’s names behind online posts -- but not faces.
On Wednesday afternoon, five moms who had taken classes online met for the first time on Grand Canyon University’s campus before fall commencement.
Their ringleader, Leann Spicola, brought them together for a photo in front of Global Credit Union Arena before the ceremony for online and cohort students because she learned that studying online created valued connections with people across the country and news ways of thinking.
Nearly 20 years ago, after high school, Spicola moved around with men she dated, from Georgia to Las Vegas, before settling in California as a single mom working in a restaurant.
When son Shane was in the second grade, she read him a Pete the Cat book about a substitute teacher who surprises a student by being his mom.
“Teachers are moms?” Shane asked her. “You are good with kids. Why aren’t you a teacher?”
It was what she called her “epiphany moment.”
She began to study for her associate degree in early childhood education and work as a paraprofessional teacher’s aide. It ignited a passion she didn’t realize before, and Spicola went on to study for a bachelor’s degree in psychology at GCU.
“The more I’ve worked with kids, the more I’ve learned that’s where we need to focus our attention,” she said. “The real driving force of the issues in society and this country is really focusing attention on the mental health of the next generation.”
Spicola had other epiphanies while logging into her courses: She started forming connections with people nationwide through discussion posts and group projects. Sometimes conversations got heated, “but not in a bad way but one that gets you thinking deeper and makes you want to understand that person, where the mindset comes from that makes you think that way.”
Spicola delighted to meet other moms, also working full time and raising children, who agreed they would never have been able to go to college if not online. She began to understand cultural differences and differences of opinion.
“I got a deeper sense in my education. I had this voice in my head, the image of how things should be – but it’s not set in stone. There is more. The world is bigger than yourself and what you see every day,” she said.
One example: “I am agnostic. I didn’t know a lot about Christianity. I didn’t grow up with it. But it really opened me up to how open it is,” she said. “We would discuss the Christian worldview of things we were learning in psychology. It opened my mind not only to Christianity but others.
“Without being aware of what you don’t know, you think you know so much.
“I had discussion posts with other students, one from Illinois, who was Christian, born and raised. We weren’t different. We were a lot more similar than we were expecting. You don’t have to do it this way or that way. We are all in this together. We are all on the same side.”
It made her think. What if she brought some graduates together for this commencement journey? She set up a social media meet-up post and several responded.
So there they were Wednesday, all dressed up to graduate, with many similar ambitions and challenges.
“I’m also a full-time mom. It’s taken me 20 years, but I got here,” said Kelly Velin of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, who also completed her requirements for a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
“This is my second go-round. But when I learned I could do it online? Here I am,” said BreShay Hanson, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, who was getting an education degree but met the psychology grads on the social media post.
“I’m a first-generation graduate,” said Angela Applegate of Show Low, Arizona, and most nodded their heads that they were, too.
Vanessa Trevino of La Joya, Texas, joined the group and told about her shared desire to be in psychology, noticing a need for it on calls through her role in emergency management.
It delighted Spicola to bring them all together. It was a reminder of what can be done online, and why she now is continuing her graduate studies. Her goal is to be a telehealth therapist one day. Her research proposal is about using artificial intelligence to assist therapists.
“Without my courses online, I would never have thought of the research proposal,” she said.
And she would never have brought these women together.
It was awkward at first, putting a face to a name. But the five warmed up quickly and started to straighten one another’s gowns and sashes before the 4 p.m. commencement.
They laughed that they were, in fact, “real people.”
“We have lives!” Velin said.
Then they lined up, shoulder to shoulder, and took a photo.
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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