Three Grand Grandchildren

This week, May 6^th-10^th, three of my grandchildren will be graduating from three different universities, each at a different level of academic achievement:

Sophie, 21, will receive her BA Degree from the Syracuse University School of Art;

Lu, 22, will receive their Master’s Degree in Public Health from Temple University; and

Natalie, 29, will receive her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sophie, the youngest of the three grads, is the child of my daughter, Christine, and husband, Steve. Looking forward to being a commercial designer in New York City, Sophie demonstrated her artistic ability early-on by making extraordinarily beautiful pop-up birthday cards for members of her family. She already has a web site and looks forward to a future that includes product design and creative fashion. She has inherited her artistic talents from her mother, a professional graphic designer, and her maternal grandfather, a retired art director and advertising executive.

Lu, the youngest child of Tom and Sara, was only 10 years old when they expressed an awareness of being transgender. Gradually, over the next eight years, with the full support of their parents, teachers, doctors and family therapist, Lucy transitioned to “Lu” and used the pronouns “they, them and their.” Lu has done so well at Temple University that they’ll be graduating this week with a combined BA and Master’s Degree in Public Health and be looking for a job in Philadelphia.

                  Natalie, also the child of my son, Tom, and wife, Sara, and Lu’s older sibling, received a full scholarship to Princeton, after excelling in math and games theory in high school. Upon graduation with a BA in Computer Science, she worked at Google for a year and then left to start work on her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Now, she has just accepted a two-year “post doc” stint at MIT to continue her advanced work in her chosen field. Natalie’s goal is to be a tenured Professor of Computer Science at a leading U.S. university.

The irony is that when I graduated from high school, nearly 70 years ago, I had to find a job instead of going to college. My widowed mother was no longer was eligible, when I turned 18, to receive the welfare support she had been getting ever since my father had died. I worked as a secretary and she did housework to support the two of us. It wasn’t until I was 30, married, and a mother of two young children, that I was able to go to Hunter College and get my BA degree in English and Communications.

                  I’m grateful for what I was able to accomplish, but even more grateful for how my grandchildren have succeeded. As scholars—and as people—they are grand!