Tami Spain faced limits from life’s trials and her own uncertainties, but after 12 years of effort could call herself a college graduate.
It would be nice, she thought, to fly from central Illinois to Phoenix and walk across the commencement stage at Grand Canyon University – but she had neither time nor money for it.
She casually mentioned to her mother that she had finished her requirements for a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. The surprised retort was succinct:
“What?”
From the beginning, Spain never thought she was college material, taking kindergarten twice and being surrounded by extended family servicemen, blue-collar workers or homemakers who talked little of college. It was for other people.
“It was for smart people, or cheerleaders and football players,” Spain said.
So after high school in 1989, she took odd jobs and became a clerk at a hospital for 15 years, while marrying and raising two daughters.
“But something was missing. I ended up walking out one day, and my first thought was, ‘My gosh what did I do?’ Then I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going back to school,” she said.
She secretly always wanted to be a teacher, so in 2012 began taking courses at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois – one or two courses at a time while mothering and working. For eight years.
“We both played travel sports, and she would take her studies with her to our games,” said daughter Megan Spain, 28, of her and sister Katelyn, 23. “When we weren’t playing, she would find a quiet place to be alone – go to the truck or kick us out of the hotel room. She sacrificed a lot.”
Tami said she just “kept plugging along,” enduring life events – “building a home, losing a home, moving twice, my mother’s open-heart surgery, the death of my father, my best friend’s cancer diagnosis and my divorce.”
When a GCU representative came to Riverton Elementary School, where she worked as a paraprofessional classroom assistant for special education, a teacher wagged her finger at Spain: “You will talk to her. You will finish your degree.”
Some courses were completed so long ago in community college that they wouldn’t count toward her requirements. But in 2022 she began her GCU studies online, while at times working one or two jobs.
Spain would study outside the office supply store where she worked parttime because they had free Wi-Fi. Other times, she felt like quitting halfway through. Like when a storm knocked out power and she couldn’t put in her assignment in time. “I was having a breakdown really,” she said, before her GCU counselor encouraged her to keep going and intervened on her behalf to explain the late assignment.
All that was why she was quietly celebrating herself finally finishing, fancy graduation gown or not.
But in the meantime, her mother had called granddaughter Megan, and Megan called Kalynn Jerszynski at Riverton, where Spain also was doing her student teaching.
“She had worked so hard and persevered through everything,” said Jerszynski, the first grade teacher who is her student teaching mentor. “I wanted to do something special.”
On graduation day – May 1 in Phoenix – an elaborate plan unfolded at Riverton Elementary.
A classroom teacher would fake a migraine headache and go to the nurses’ station – even faking some testing – and Spain would take over. Another teacher would come in with a cap and gown and ask Spain to model it for her presentation to children on the importance of going to college. There also was another feint about going to make copies for some nonexistent task and, eventually, Spain was led to the newly-decorated room, with a cake, streamers, flowers, cards and gifts.
“I walked through the door, and they were playing the graduation march, and my mom and my daughter and best friend were sitting there,” Spain said. “I was so emotional I had no words. I went to every student and gave them a hug.”
She cried tears of a lifetime of uncertainty that had vanished.
“She is going to be a compassionate teacher,” Jerszynski said. “She knows about struggle. She will have a special place in her heart for those it doesn’t come easy for.”
At age 54, some teachers are considering retirement, Spain said, “but here I am starting a new career.”
“I may not have been able to attend the formal graduation function,” she wrote on Facebook, “but this was way better in so many ways.
“Keep reaching for the stars.”
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu
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