Never let anyone get in the way of your sparkle!
So many people have dropped out of college because of one reason or the other but one California woman beat the odds and graduated with three degrees all at the same damn time. And oh yeah, she did it all while being a single mother of three!
28-year-old Deanna Jordan had a lot to be proud of when she graduated from UCLA on Friday. The Compton native was just 18 years old when she got pregnant fresh out of high school, and became pregnant again with her third child at the age of 22. With three boys at home, Deanna made the decision to do better.
So she enrolled at West Los Angeles Community College for two years and then transferred to UCLA, where she spent three-and-a-half years busting her butt to make sure she created a future for herself and her kids.
On Friday, all that hard work paid off when Deanna graduated with two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in African-American Studies.
Speaking on her journey, Deanna shared:
I needed for my sons to see there was a legacy that preceded them with college. I am the first in my family to go to college.
You can’t really succeed unless you fail, and I failed a lot of times, but it was my persistence and my willingness never to give up.
To add to this achievement , Deanna’s already making a difference in her old neighborhood. She founded the Compton Pipeline Taskforce, where she and other UCLA volunteers work with kids at Compton schools. She says:
I saw the difference in how my boys were in school in Brentwood and then how schools were in Compton where I came from.
The inspiring grad, who also works in Compton’s mayor’s office, says law school is next for her and that she hopes to one day become a district attorney.
So tell me, what’s your excuse?