By Eric Jay Toll / Special to GCU News
Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow / Livestream
“When I first started this journey in 2016, it was in entrepreneurial studies,” said 68-year-old Leona Lowe as she was relaxing after walking for her master degree in Christian leadership, awarded April 29 at Grand Canyon University. “I was doing it to help my daughter open a dance studio – my husband and I were going to handle the business side – that’s why I started.
After a while, Lowe, who's based in the Phoenix area, realized that her daughter was not motivated to start the business.
“Because I saw the sacrifice it took to be in college, I was like, ‘I’m going to do this for myself,’” she said. “I wanted to be what I started. I wanted to be the legacy (for my family).”
Education was not a priority in Lowe’s childhood. It was not a part of her parents’ childhoods, either.
“My mother was the eldest of 22 children,” she said. “They needed my mother in the field. They took her out of school, and she never learned to read or write. My dad went up to the seventh grade.”
In her own life, Lowe didn’t do much better. She didn’t graduate from high school and had her first child at 17.
“That is a journey in itself, and not what I promote with my children. It’s the one I wanted them to stay away from because it stops a lot of things,” she said. “I kept telling my kids, ‘You’ve got to go to school, you’ve got to go to school.'”
She kept up the message with the kids but realized they looked at her as a role model. Finally, in 1996, Lowe earned her general education degree. She said being “old” in a class with other younger students was hard.
“Then I realized that I wanted to go further than (a GED) because I noticed that my grandchildren were saying they didn’t want to go to college,” Lowe recounted. “I said I was going to leave a legacy. I’ll do this for myself and set the example.”
She said that attending GCU online allowed her to complete her bachelor’s of applied management and grow that into her newly earned master’s degree. Between health challenges and the anxiety of being so much older than on-campus students, Lowe found online learning was comfortable and safe for her.
“I struggled in my first two years. And then I decided I'm not doing this because of my age. I've decided I'm not going to do this because of the level of stress,” she recalled. “Sometimes I missed family events, sometimes I missed church. I found myself stuck in this chair all day long.”
She thought she was doing OK by keeping up and turning in assignments on time. Lowe persevered through all the challenges.
“When I stood for my (graduation) picture, they handed me a yellow cord,” she shared. “I asked, ‘What’s this for?’ They looked at me and said, ‘Leona, you’re graduating with honors.’”
She was 65 when she walked across that stage.
With that mission of an education legacy prominent in her mind and the importance of inspiring her granddaughters to higher education, Lowe pressed on with her GCU online studies. Her oldest granddaughter once told her that she didn’t want to go to college, didn’t want to talk about college, and was never going to college. She watched her grandmother persevere. Today, that granddaughter is a junior on campus at GCU.
Lowe, an ordained minister, wanted to do more for her ministry. With one granddaughter in college and two others making plans for higher education, she considered a master’s degree.
It was something that I wanted to achieve. Getting a degree is not always about money.
Leona Lowe, an online student who graduated with her master's at age 68
“I worked for the same company for 41 years and was forced into retirement,” she said. “Now I didn’t have the job pressure, so I decided to pursue the master’s degree.”
Lowe is enthusiastic about what an advanced degree from GCU can mean to your whole life. She said that when working toward her bachelor’s degree, people at her company kept asking what she would do with the degree at her stage in life.
“It was something that I wanted to achieve,” she said. “Getting a degree is not always about money.”
Lowe has an interesting perspective on the difference between bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
“A bachelor’s degree is taking a series of required classes,” she said. “A master’s is more about what you believe you need. I wanted to learn more about the Bible. I wanted something that would let me go for management.”
She said the biggest win in the master’s program was improving her writing skills. She explained that sometimes she’ll write something, then go back and look at it later.
“I’ll write something and look at it and say, ‘Did I really write that?’” Lowe said with a laugh. “Then I’ll read it to my ministry supervisor and she’ll be like, ‘Wow!’”
Lowe is effusive when people ask for advice while considering an advanced degree in their mid- or late-career positions.
“Find your passion,” she said. “What you learn starts to expand and is more and more exciting with a bachelor’s."
For Lowe, online learning fit her schedule, calmed her anxieties, and let her accomplish her spiritual and educational goals.
“It doesn’t matter my age, my color, or what I’m wearing,” she said. “I can get up in the middle of the night, I can get up at five in the morning. It was convenient for me.”
Would Lowe recommend GCU online to someone looking to advance?
“Absolutely. Absolutely,” she said.
Phoenix-based Eric Jay Toll is an award-winning freelance journalist and photographer covering business, the economy and travel. His work has appeared in such publications as the Phoenix Business Journal and USA Today.
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