Graduation day for mom, daughter

For many students, the travails of college life might include an annoying roommate or unappetizing dorm food.

For Caryn Andrews, the obstacle was completing her degree while serving in the military in the Persian Gulf.

Andrews, 28, was already in college when the Navy Reserves called her into action in June 2007. She was deployed to Kuwait as a member of the Army Military Police, where she responded to terrorist threats, made traffic stops and dealt with suspicious packages.

"We were always on call," Andrews said. "We never had a day off."

Andrews credits her mother, Nancy Baron, for making sure she earned her degree. Baron is a longtime special education teacher at Kimball Hill Elementary School in Rolling Meadows.

"She was lighting a fire under me to the end," Andrews said of Baron. "I want to thank her for pushing me."

Apparently, the inspiration was mutual. Andrews and her mother were both among the 117 people who received degrees Sunday from Argosy University-Schaumburg.

Andrews earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and Baron, of Elk Grove Village, a doctorate of education in instructional leadership. The ceremony was held at Elgin's Hemmens Cultural Center.

In Kuwait, Andrews had two classrooms: the police station, where she'd go online to print out homework assignments, and her quarters, where she'd finish them. She worked on nine class credits while overseas, spending about two hours a week on course work. She finished in June.

"She really trudged through a line of obstacles just to get where she is," Baron said.

The mother and daughter didn't plan to graduate together. Baron started at Argosy earlier, but later had to take an unanticipated break from writing her dissertation, so "things just worked out."

"Both of them had to be motivating each other for them to move forward," said Argosy Schaumburg Campus President James Chitwood.

Aware of how special a moment it would be between mother and daughter, Argosy made plans to involve Andrews in the ceremony via video conferencing if she couldn't make it. As it happened, she returned from her tour in August.

Andrews, who recently moved to Gilberts and works as a West Dundee police officer, studied psychology because of her interest in criminal justice.

She enlisted in the Navy Reserves in 2003 in part, her mother said, in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Andrews began her degree work at Harper College in Palatine, enrolling in Argosy in 2006. Then the Navy called.

"When I got the call, I was pretty sad," Andrews said. "I was just in my groove."

While deployed, homework wasn't always a priority, since military duties sometimes got in the way of completing assignments on time. Andrews said her professors were more than understanding. It's not like she had to tell them the dog ate her homework.

And she still managed to graduate with honors.

That's a far cry from the girl who, her mother said, struggled in the classroom before graduating from Conant High School in Hoffman Estates in 1998. Now Andrews is already enrolled in master's degree program in criminal justice and forensic psychology at Argosy, which has 19 campuses nationwide.