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Mother and Daughter Receive Degrees
CHICAGO, IL (June 8, 2006) - More than three decades after Caren Hayward came within
weeks of completing her college studies, she received a long-delayed bachelor's
degree from North Park University.
 The event was made even more special because her daughter
Johnna was one of the audience members applauding. "It was just a blessing,"
Caren says.
The next week was her turn to bless as she watched Johnna graduate from North
Park Theological Seminary. "It made the whole experience feel complete," Johnna
says.
The double graduations were an end to an unlikely journey neither imagined
they would make.
Caren had attended North Park from 1965 to 1969 but left to get married with
only a semester of classes needed to graduate. "It was always in the back of my
mind to finish, but I never thought I would," she says.
That time came when Caren visited her daughter at the seminary. One of
Johnna's friends encouraged her mother to finish her degree. "God gave me the
strength to talk to student services," Caren says, adding she was able to
transfer most of her credits but had to take an extra semester.
The times had changed, though, since Caren had been in a college classroom,
and she had to learn new skills. For example, she says, "I didn't have computer
skills when I came back." Still, the other students, all of who were younger
than her daughter, made her feel she belonged. "Even though I was the oldest one
in class, everybody was so gracious to me."
Johnna might never have attended North Park nor learned much about her mother
matriculating there were it not for a coming together of circumstances. "I
didn't talk much about it because I never finished," Caren says of her college
days.
While attending Luther College in Iowa, Johnna began attending a congregation
that would soon affiliate with the Evangelical Covenant Church, a denomination
about which she knew nothing. She only learned of her mom attending North Park
when her family visited her during parents weekend and remarked how Luther
reminded them of her mother's college.
Her then-pastor Mike Blevins encouraged Johnna to consider mission work with
the Covenant, and she traveled to Japan, where she worked for two years. "That's
where I fell in love with the Covenant," she says. "I love their holistic
approach to ministry."
Caren is hoping to find a job as a caseworker at a children's home. Johnna is
involved in multiethnic ministry.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
