A family that graduates together, stays together
Reese family achieves AWC goal as three members graduate
This graduation season has been a particularly special one for the Reese family. Some adults have been celebrating their own graduation from college or university while others, their offspring’s graduations. But the Reese family has reached a milestone together. Both Christine Clark Reese, 36, and Eric Reese, 48, graduated from Arizona Western College alongside their son, Jakkson Fisher Reese, 17.
And Jakkson walked the line having earned his high school diploma from Gila Ridge High School and two associate degrees from AWC.
Christine Clark Reese, 36, didn’t get to walk the line at her high school graduation because she was about to give birth to her son.
“It was definitely not planned for all of us to be here together but I will say that it’s really, truly beautiful,” Christine said. “For all of us to get here at the same time, unplanned, the universe clearly had its own plans for us to be able to sit next to each other at graduation. It was meant to be.”
On top of that, AWC Coordinator of Physical and Wellness Education Jane Peabody had the special privilege of sitting in the front row as her daughter, grandson and son-in-law received their degrees.
“She is pretty jazzed,” Christine added. “She’s having a proud mom and grandma moment and I feel like she should. She’s like our ultimate fangirl.”
Christine’s grandmother, Dr. Marge Barcomb, also sat front row with the rest of the family. Having spent decades as a member of the AWC Governing Board with the Agriculture and Science (AS) Complex at the Yuma Campus named in her honor, Dr. Barcomb was said to be thrilled.
The road to graduation wasn’t without challenges. In fact, AWC’S account described that it was nothing short of a miracle that the family is celebrating the milestone together.
“It’s been a really rocky road for us. We’ve been through a lot,” Christine said. “My husband Eric is a veteran of three foreign wars and after getting out of the military, he was in an accident two years ago where he was in the hospital in a coma with a traumatic brain injury. The following year he was in a freak accident at home and cut his thumb off. Our youngest son had pediatric cancer. It’s been a really intense journey.”
These challenges came on top of balancing the responsibilities that come with school, work and raising six children.
But why persevere? After being a personal trainer for years, Christine recently decided to go back to school and become a physical therapist. Along with running a personal training studio with Eric, she began working as a physical therapy aide and taking classes when her schedule permitted.
Eric, meanwhile, took on the full-time parent role of dropping off and picking up the children from school and making sure meals were cooked in addition to finishing his classes. He also worked as an embedded physics tutor at the AWC Student Success Center and was recently honored as the 2022-2023 AWC Student Employee of the Year.
Jakkson’s experience varied but was similarly accomplished: He earned a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) license while still in high school, worked at Waylon’s Water World and taught lifeguard certification courses at AWC.
“We’re on campus together all the time; it feels like we live here,” Christine commented in a pre-graduation interview. “Last semester I took night classes and this semester, Eric is taking night classes four nights of the week. So we’re at the campus Starbucks often and we eat at the cafeteria together too.
“Eric and Jakkson take a lot of the same classes. To see my husband, the love of my life, and then my son, the other love of my life, sitting there talking about what they grew in microbiology lab and seeing that bonding experience they’re having makes my heart fuller than I could ever explain. There are not a lot of words to convey how I’m feeling but there are a lot of tears.”
Christine graduated with her Associate in Applied Science degree in Medical Assisting on May 19. Eric earned an Associate in Science degree in Biology. Jakkson received his Associate in Arts and Associate in General Studies degrees, too.
Their collective postsecondary ed story isn’t over yet either. All three have plans to pursue additional higher education degrees at Northern Arizona University – Yuma. Christine plans to earn a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree in Medical Assisting while Eric plans to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Sciences and Jakkson is planning for a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing.
“We’re really excited,” Christine concluded. “We all thought this would be the only chance we would have to graduate together but honestly, we’ll probably end up doing it again at NAU.”