She Worked Two Jobs To Raise Three Daughters. At 72, She Finally Walked Across The Stage.
Irma Garcia was born in Puerto Rico, moved to Virginia in 1978 as a 25-year-old single mother with three daughters under the age of four, and spent the decades that followed working multiple jobs at a time, including nights at a Wendy's preparing salad bars, to give her children the stability and opportunities she wanted for them. She earned an associate degree along the way but always knew she wanted a bachelor's degree, always held it as a goal that had a date on it somewhere in the future, and for a very long time that future kept moving. Five years ago, in her late 60s and semi-retired, Garcia enrolled at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, where seniors can take three free classes per semester through a tuition waiver program, and she chose public administration as her major. Her eight grandchildren, five of whom had already graduated from college themselves, cheered her on and gave her study tips and helped her navigate all the technology that had changed since the last time she was a student.
Garcia walked across the graduation stage at George Mason University in May and collected her bachelor's degree in public administration with a minor in Spanish, completing a goal she had carried for nearly half a century. She said she felt like the grandmother of the whole class, calling herself the abuela of her classmates, and that she genuinely loved them and learned from them in return. Her three daughters, all of whom built successful careers and families, were in the audience, and she described the degree as a family accomplishment rather than her own alone. When asked for her secret to success, Garcia did not hesitate: believe in yourself, she said, and dance a lot of salsa. She added that she plans to take a trip with her daughters before returning to part-time work in the nonprofit sector, because there are still people who need help finding housing, and she still knows how to do that.
