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Front Page
News
In Brief
Research
Out and About
News and Notes
Classified
Obituary
Flashback
Employment
Papers & Presentations
Notable
Search this issue
The Gazette Homepage
Division of University Relations Homepage
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Family
affair
By Jean
Graham
Photo by Jean Graham
Mother and daughter, Gladys (L) and Nicole Street graduated
on the same day.
A convocation is a big event
in any family. When two family members receive university degrees
at the same time, the event is even bigger. And when those two
family members are mother and daughter — well, the day is
unmatchable.
At the Friday (June 1) afternoon session of this year’s
convocation, Nicole (Nikki) and Gladys Street received bachelor’s
degrees. Nikki had completed the honours recreation program,
receiving the University Medal for Academic Excellence, while
her mother Gladys was awarded the Bachelor of Special Education
degree.
For Gladys (nee Colbourne), her Memorial time was a return to
the campus where she earned her BA (Ed.) almost 25 years ago.
She comes from a family of 15 children, 13 of whom have completed
university or other post-secondary education. You may have seen
them featured on Here and Now some years back. Since her
original 1977 graduation, she has discovered that working with
challenging needs students was “the area that I enjoy the
most.”
She decided to complete the specialized degree, beginning with
three distance education courses from Athabasca University. She
spent summer and fall 2000 in St. John’s. She confesses
to being a little nervous about returning to the other side of
the classroom; she was “worried about the age difference
at first” but soon discovered she was more comfortable than
she’d ever thought possible. She described the faculty as
“helpful and — well, wonderful.”
Daughter Nikki also had praise for her instructors. While she
started out planning to follow her parents’ career path
as a teacher, she switched to the B.Rec. program once she realized
that “all of my interests and summer jobs had been in that
area.”
She’s hoping to stay in the St. John’s area to work,
and said “my education is not over.” She plans to work
for a few years, and then decide whether her master’s degree
will be in the recreation or the business side of her undergrad
studies.
Randy Green, father of Nikki and spouse of Gladys, is also a
MUN alumnus, holding education degrees at the bachelor’s
and master’s level. Both he and Gladys commented on the
enormous changes the campus has seen since the early 1970s.
At least one thing remains the same, though — the name of
the student pub. “We actually met at the Breezeway,”
he said. Were they planning to check out the new facility?
“Maybe,” said Gladys. “You never know.”
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