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Anne Margaret “Amie” Farrell grew up in Ireland, the eldest of nine children. Her mother was nearly blind from smallpox contracted as a toddler, but according to Amie, “she had an ‘overdose’ of common sense, the sharpest wit, and a rich vocabulary. She could do just about anything.” Amie’s father was a small farmer who came to the U.S. briefly during the Depression but returned to Ireland and raised his family. At the age of 17, Amie boarded the ship Ivernia and sailed to America in search of better opportunities. “College was not attainable for the majority back then in Ireland. One had to either be a genius or have connections,” she recalls. But even in America, the education she craved eluded her. Continue Reading

For much of her adult life, earning a college degree was a distant dream for Lucille Murphy. That goal became even more remote when the mother of two gave birth to triplets in 1998. With five children to care for, she figured she’d put that dream on hold, at least until the triplets were in kindergarten. “I wanted to give my children the gift of time,” she explains, “but I also wanted to lead my family toward education. And I knew that if I wanted to do that, I needed to lead myself and finish my degree.”

When she sent the three boys off to kindergarten, Lucille started attending classes at UC. “But I still needed to be an employee, mother, wife, daughter, and sister,” she recalls. “I learned that time passes, and what we do with these pockets of time is up to us. When one shares their dream and goals with the important people in their lives, they support you and become springboards to your success.” Continue Reading

When Eyal Sherman crossed the stage to receive his Syracuse University diploma at the University College Commencement Celebration in May, 2009, the world was watching.  Dateline NBC covered this momentous occasion, not because Eyal is rich or famous or accomplished, but because his life story is one of extraordinary triumph over inconceivable odds.

The fact that he cannot walk, talk, or even breathe on his own is almost incidental. A ventilator breathes for him 24 hours a day. “He always understood, even with his challenges, that he would be a college graduate,” his father, Rabbi Charles Sherman of Temple Adath Yeshurun in Syracuse asserts. Eyal’s determination to reach beyond his disabilities is so strong that he was the subject of a research project at SU under the direction of Ed Lipson, Ph.D., a professor in the department of physics at SU.  Continue Reading

Robin Morgan attended college after high school, but left to work full time. Years later, the economic downturn made her rethink her approach, and in her late 40s, she returned to college to finish her degree. Robin’s re-education began at Onondaga Community College and culminated at SU, where she studied part time through University College. At 50, Robin graduated from SU with the highest GPA in her class of part-time students.

At the beginning of her journey, Robin was sure of three things. “I knew SU had an excellent transfer agreement with OCC, that I wanted to make a career change, and that I wished to continue my education at Syracuse University,” she recalls. But shortly after enrolling at OCC, her job was eliminated. At that point, continuing her education was a “calculated risk,” she says. Continue Reading

When Kalpana “Kal” Srinivas left her native India to come to the U.S. as a young woman, she was already well educated. This was in large part due to the efforts of her mother, whose own education had come to a halt at the age of 13, when she was part of an arranged marriage to a 19-year-old man. Determined that her daughters would have more opportunities than she had been given, Kal’s mother sent them to a convent boarding school where the Catholic nuns had a reputation for excellence in teaching and discipline. Kal was a good student who continued on to college after convent school. She earned a degree in biology and chemistry from Rajasthan University with an eye on becoming a physician. But Indian medical schools required a monetary donation from the student’s family that hers couldn’t provide, so her dreams of further education were put on hold. Continue Reading