A graduation day that has been 40 years in the making has finally been set for May of 2018, and Indianola native Tommy Rush couldn’t be more excited.
“It’s more like a satisfaction thing, It’s something that I felt like I just didn’t complete,” he said.
Rush, who is a 1978 Gentry High School graduate, and three other persons recently earned their bachelor’s degree from Mississippi Valley State University by way of the Complete to Compete program, a statewide initiative that encourages Mississippi adults who have some college coursework to go back and finish what they’d started.
Rush and the others are the first to receive their degrees through the program at MVSU and were celebrated in a special ceremony on Dec. 14 on the campus.
He said he has been waiting 39 and one half years to walk across the stage to receive it.
“Ever since I left high school,” Rush added.
Although they have successfully completed their requirements, MVSU officials invited him and his fellow partakers to come back and march with the 2018 graduating class in May since Valley doesn’t offer a mid-year graduation.
“It will actually be 40 years, when I actually walk across the stage,” he said, “I’ve waited this long, you know I don’t mind coming back to do this.”
Rush began his post high school studies as a football standout at Miles College in Birmingham and over the course of his collegiate studies had amassed 142 college hours, but no degree.
And prior to now, no one told him that he might be able to use those accumulated credits to forge a degree.
Many persons who participate in the C2C program end up having to complete a few extra courses to receive their diploma but Rush was lucky enough to already have enough hours to graduate with a degree with emphasis in accounting and business administration.
He first came to MVSU in 1979 after the football program at Miles College was dropped due to funding issues and the players were given the option to transfer to other schools.
“I had about three offers, that was Delaware State, Liberty Baptist University and Mississippi Valley, so I came to Valley,” Rush said.
He said he only played one year of football at the Itta Bena school before leaving the program to work full-time at Supervalu Foods in 1980 but still commuted to classes.
“I’ve worked the same job for 37 and a half years. I’ve been married for 34 years, and I have four adult children, so I’ve had a great life,” said Rush.
Rush said he is the first male in his age group, in his family to graduate from college.
“I am really proud to do that for the family,” said Rush, “I did it for myself, I did it for my family and I was glad to do it for my dad.”
Rush said his father passed away about two years before he graduated high school but had given him some advise that he never forgot.
“He always wanted me to work at Supervalu and go to college, so I’ve done both,” he said.
It was Rush’s daughter, who is the night school director at Northwest Community College that introduced him to the C2C program.
Rush said her school was already involved in the program.
“So that’s when she started looking into it for me,” he said, she was familiar with the program and knew who to contact to get the necessary information.
He said the whole process didn’t take very long and the most time consuming portion was trying to locate his school records since he had been out of school so long, “They had to go back 35 years to make sure I didn’t owe the school any money,” Rush said. But he didn’t because he had already paid off his student loan. In three months or less the process was complete.
The C2C program is available at colleges across the state and is designed to help those who may have enough earned college credits, but never graduated, find a diploma. Rush asserted that there are likely, “A lot more people in the same boat, may just need a class (to graduate).”
