Student receives diploma after 13 years
For 13 years, COLUMBUS —
Kris Hall had every legitimate excuse to quit her quest to earn a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University.
She needed to help take care of her dad in Florida while he fought bone and skin cancer, and she had a major surgery of her own.
A tornado ripped through her community and blew a neighbor’s garage into her house.
She lost her job and was unemployed for a year.
There were two young boys to raise and a husband with his own career.
Still, Hall, a dental-assistant instructor at the Career and Technology Education Centers of Licking County in Newark, pushed forward. She drove 35 miles from her home in Heath to Ohio State’s main campus to take classes, mainly at night. Studying and writing papers ate up her evenings and chunks of her weekends.
Hall started taking classes at Ohio State in 2004. At Sunday’s commencement ceremony, the 49-year-old received a bachelor of science degree in career tech education.
“I’ve tried to dedicate much of my life to helping my family, friends, students and other people. But this degree was about myself,” Hall said. “I did it for me.”
Hall was among those receiving an autumn-class record 3,721 degrees from Ohio State in the Jerome Schottenstein Center. Ohio State President Dr. Michael V. Drake presided over the ceremony. U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, gave commencement address.
Each graduate received her or his diploma at the ceremony, which is rare at a university the size of Ohio State.
It wasn’t the first time Hall held a college diploma.
In 2011, she earned an associate degree from Ohio State after seven years of attending classes. She decided to skip the graduation ceremony; instead, she picked up her diploma in an envelope from OSU’s Newark campus and sat alone in her green Honda Pilot. There were mainly tears of joy when she took a photo of the diploma with her cellphone and sent it to her parents in Florida.
She said she regretted not attending the graduation ceremony with her classmates. In part, that helped fuel her desire to go on to earn a bachelor’s degree. She promised herself she would complete the four-year degree before she turned 50 and before her 19-year-old son earned his associate degree.
“From a persistence standpoint, she is at the top of the list,” said Chris Zirkle, Hall’s adviser and an associate professor in workforce development and education in the College of Education and Human Ecology. “There were some pep talks along the way, but it was her amazing determination that made this happen. What was so impressive is she didn’t need this degree for her job or anything else.”
Hall graduated from Newark High School and C-TEC with a dental-assisting certificate in 1986. She was then hired by John Wallace, who recently retired after 38 years as a dentist in Newark.
Hall credits Wallace for being the kind of mentor she tries to be to her junior and senior high school students at C-TEC.
“I was 18 when I started working in his dental office, and he taught me how to act like an adult, what it meant to be a professional,” Hall said. “I had to mature quickly, and without him, I wouldn’t be getting this degree now.”
Wallace said he can remember the day he hired Hall, and she has never disappointed.
Hall switched careers when she returned to C-TEC as a dental assistant instructor in 2004. She immediately began taking classes part time at Ohio State because she wanted the additional education and most of the cost was covered by her employer.