Sonja Wray-Brewer is not celebrating Mother’s Day this year. Instead, she’s celebrating “Mother’s Day Weekend.” The extended celebration is an acknowledgment that this year’s Mother’s Day precedes by just a few days a big milestone in her life: the conferral of her academic degree by University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC).
Wray-Brewer will mark Mother’s Day with her daughters before flying to Florida to watch a cousin, whom she encouraged to go to college, graduate. The cousin is then boarding a plane to come back to Maryland to see Wray-Brewer receive her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at UMGC’s Grad Walk.
It is a degree that was long in coming. Thirty-three years, to be exact. The mother of two regrets she waited so long.
“It is one of the most fulfilling decisions I ever made,” she said.
When Sonja Wray-Brewer graduated from high school, she headed straight to college. What followed were a series of ups and downs. She spent her first year at SUNY Delhi in New York then transferred to SUNY Brockport, a larger college.
“I had done OK at SUNY Delhi, but I didn’t do well at the bigger school. I was from a small town in New York and it was too large,” she said. “After a year, my mother told me I had to go home.”
She then earned an associate degree from Mohawk Valley Community College, married and started a family. She eventually ended up as a single mother, always assuming she would one day go back to school. Instead, she landed a job with the federal government and started moving up the ranks. She rose to become an administrative chief for the Bureau of African Affairs in the U.S. Department of State.
The demands of her job are what pushed her to finally enroll in a business degree program at UMGC.
“For what I do in the federal government, I use business skills. I am in charge of travel, procurement, property, logistics and I have to manage my bureau, which consists of 230 individuals,” she said. “I oversee the management of 11 offices within my bureau, handling responsibilities such as office equipment, furniture, travel, renovations and other essential needs.”
Her job also requires travel to Africa. While studying for her degree, she was often logging in to classes from far-flung locations.
“The first year I was in the Ivory Coast for some weeks while studying. You’re ahead so many hours there,” she said, referring to the time zone difference from the United States. “Last year I was in South Africa for six or seven weeks. I was taking my classes no matter where my job was.”
The only class she ever dropped—information systems in organizations—was one she signed up for during an especially busy stretch of time in Ethiopia. “I just could not do it,” Wray-Brewer, said. Back in the states when she re-enrolled, she earned an “A” in the course.
She said it wasn’t easy returning to school after so long away.
“I had plenty of meltdowns, especially in the beginning,” she said. “I tried to do too much or work was too demanding or I struggled with time management. At one point I thought I was too old but then I decided that age is just a number.”
With a successful career, what made her return to college at age 55?
Wray-Brewer said she was able to move up in the federal government without a bachelor’s degree, but she would have advanced faster with university credentials. In particular, she saw her idea of going into government procurement derailed when she learned a degree was a requirement.
“The magic moment came when my youngest was starting to pursue her PhD. My daughters encouraged me. They reminded me that I always said that once they were finished, I was going to go back to school,” she said. “So, I told myself that no matter how long it takes, if I can do a course at a time, I’m going to do it.
“I then announced to my daughters that I had registered at UMGC and my classes started in a week. That was three years ago.”
With her bachelor’s degree checked off her wish list, Wray-Brewer has the summer off for the first time in three years. But it’s a short-lived respite because she has already signed up for UMGC’s master’s degree program in business administration. Those courses start in the fall.
“More than anything, I’m doing this for self-fulfillment, for my own growth,” she said.
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