Mom, son graduate at Berry

The same-weekend ceremonies for Cindy Marchant’s master’s degree and Cody Glen Marchant’s bachelor’s degree may be a first for Berry.

The Berry College commencement exercises were a one-of-a-kind family affair for Cindy Marchant and her son Cody Glen Marchant of LaFayette. Both mother and son received diplomas during the same series of graduation ceremonies Friday and Saturday, something Berry’s Chris Kozelle said may have been a first for the college.

Kozelle, director of public relations for Berry College, said to the best of her knowledge this is the first time a child and parent had received degrees during the same graduation weekend. “No one can remember a parent/child since they’ve been at Berry,” Kozelle said via email.

Cindy Marchant, human resources manager at Berry, received her Master in Business Administration degree during ceremonies Friday night, while her son received a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry Saturday.

Cody graduated from high school in 2013 and enrolled at Berry in the

fall of that same year. His mom, who has worked at Berry for 12 years, had been thinking about getting her MBA for several

years, and decided it was time for her to further her education two years later.

“When I first started I only took one class for two semesters, so I got behind. This past fall I doubled up so that I could finish when I found it was going to be a possibility (that we graduate together),” Cindy said.

Cody said the experience Saturday was pretty awesome. “Mom really worked hard to be able to graduate with me,” Cody said. “We definitely had a lot of pictures taken.”

She said the rare double graduation could not have happened without the tuition remission policy at Berry. Being an employee, Cindy got a 100 percent tuition remission for her class work. Cody also got tuition remission since his mom was an employee of the college. “It was an opportunity that had we not had that benefit we would not be doing what we did this weekend,” Cindy said.

While Cindy wants to be able to advance in her profession, she said she really wants to stay on at Berry.

Cody has been accepted at the University of Georgia School of Pharmacy and will begin his studies in Athens this fall. “I

plan on getting a start in a hospital setting rather than retail,” Cody said. “Right now the plan is to look at oncology pediatrics

and maybe do some compounding with chemotherapy drugs or just being a chemotherapy guide for children in the hospital setting.”

Berry College conferred 64 master’s degrees during the Friday night ceremony and 472 undergraduate degrees Saturday.

ABOVE: Kristen Reeves celebrates with classmates Saturday during Berry College’s Spring Commencement. BELOW: Malcholm Graham is congratulated following his commencement ceremony.Photos by Brant Sanderlin, Berry College

Doug Walker / Rome News-TribuneCody Marchant (right) straightens out a cap for his mom, Cindy Marchant, for a few pre-graduation pictures.

Photo by Brant Sanderlin / Berry CollegeAngelica Miller hugs her mom, Laura Miller, an admissions counselor at Berry, after receiving her diploma from her mother Saturday during Berry’s Spring Commencement.