The catchphrase came quickly to Mary Cunningham as she hurtled her way through college for the first time: “Whose brilliant idea was this?”
Cunningham, of Dyer, was nothing but smiles Friday evening as she and a ton of her Ivy Tech chums walked the dais set up at the U.S. Steel Yard in Gary for the school’s commencement. Her daughter, Lori Ryser, and bonus daughter Donna Cunningham, greeted her with a poster of her standing on her porch on her first day of college in September 2020 and then a pic of her in her cap and gown like many proud families do for their loved ones.
With her grandson, Ben, by her side, Cunningham became the school’s oldest Honors College graduate. Her adrenaline, she said, was off the charts.
“It’s hard to describe the sense of pride I have in myself,” the 77-year-old general studies graduate said, smiling. “But there were many times that I wondered why I was doing this to myself.”
More than 1,000 students graduated at the Steel Yard, many of them so-called nontraditional students like Cunningham. It’s a fact of which Kevin Teasley, president of the GEO Foundation, is immensely proud.
“This is an institution that welcomes all comers,” said Teasley, who also received an honorary degree. “It helps model mechanics and welders; it helps culinary students and nurses. Maybe there’s an aspiring lawyer, but it all starts right here.”
When GEO Foundation opened its first charter, 21st Century Charter School, in 2005, they started with a traditional mindset, Teasley said. It wasn’t until one of its first students said he was going to drop out that they decided to think out of the box.
“We told him that if he took the entrance exam (to Ivy Tech), we would cover it and his schooling. Two years later, he graduated and earned an associate’s degree,” he said. “Since then, more than 60 students have gone on to get their associate’s and even bachelor’s degrees through Ivy Tech, and all of this success is because of Ivy Tech being open to partnerships like this.”
While many of the nontraditional students are high school students working on dual credit, Cunningham also availed herself of what the school had to offer, including becoming a member of honor fraternity Phi Beta Kappa in 2021. She even hosted a Zoom program for her fellow Honors College students titled, appropriately, “Whose Brilliant Idea Was This?”
“We disbanded it because it was hard to get everyone together. But it was fun,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham wanted to go to college but was always “putting herself behind us,” Donna Cunningham said. After retiring, the perfect opportunity presented itself when she was 73.
“I did it to confuse my family,” she said, again with a smile.
As for what she’s going to do now, Cunningham will finally crack open the books she wants to read as opposed to the ones she read for class and maybe talk to Ivy Tech about helming a program for the nontraditional student, she said. But first, there will be a party, her daughter said.
“We have a room at (a hotel), and there will be mimosas,” she said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
