When she walked across the stage at commencement on Dec. 16, Terrie Harris realized a dream more than 25 years in the making.
Life intervened often during Harris’ educational journey, but thanks to Kent State University’s Regional Campus system, a diploma was finally hers. During fall commencement, Harris, 58, walked across the stage and received her bachelor’s degree in technical and applied studies, which she earned attending Kent State University's Twinsburg Academic Center.
“I have grandbabies who have seen their granny going to school all their life. I wanted to show them that when you put your mind to something if you stick to it, you can do it,” Harris said.
Harris’ story is atypical even for a nontraditional student.
She graduated from high school in 1984 in the Philippines, where her Air Force parents were stationed. In the next five years, she had three children, but had little luck with planning for her future.
“My mom told me that I had been busy, just not busy doing anything,” Harris chuckled as she recalled her late teens and early 20s. Her parents, she said, gave her a year to figure out a plan for her life and at the end of that year, she elected to join the U.S. Army.
It was 1989. Just a year later, she was overseas, serving in Operation Desert Storm following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. Another four years in the Army followed, but when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994, Harris opted to leave the military and move to Idaho, where her parents were to help care for her mother.
She began a two-year stretch as a full-time caregiver for her mother, her three children and her younger teenage brother.
“By 1996, my mother was in remission, but I was pretty traumatized as a Gulf War vet, I don’t even think I knew how traumatized I was at the time,” Harris recalled. “I had some issues, PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. I had gone through trauma in the military that I had never shared before and I am also a survivor of MST, which is military sexual trauma.”
After seeking help through Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) programs, Harris said she was able to start putting her life on track, including registering for classes at Boise State University in Idaho. During that time, she also had a fourth child and took on the responsibility of raising a stepson.
Harris eventually married and added two foster children to the family, raising the total number of children she was rearing to seven, as she continued to work on her degree and serve as a substitute teacher at her children’s school.
Everything changed, however, when the U.S. was attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, and Harris’ husband, who was in the U.S. Air Force, was sent off to the War in Iraq, with just one day’s notice.
“He had to drop everything and literally, he was gone. At that point, it was imperative for me to be at home full-time to manage the household,” Harris recalled. So, her college education was put on hold.
When her husband returned from the war, the couple welcomed another child – Harris’ fifth – bringing their family to eight children.
Unfortunately, it was not long after that Harris’ marriage began to fall apart. Her husband returned home from the war also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the effects of which took a toll on their marriage.
After struggling to make ends meet for years, Harris moved to Northeast Ohio, because her ex-husband, an Ohio native, had settled there and she wanted her youngest child to be closer to her father. By this time, her oldest children were in their twenties and were moving out on their own, so she decided to make the move.
“I stepped out on faith,” Harris said. “I packed up my car with my two youngest children and early one morning, I left for Ohio.”
The move was beneficial. Harris settled in Painesville in Lake County, and in 2010, was able to graduate with her associate degree from Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio.
“I got back into therapy, and I got back on track,” she said.
In 2013, Harris saw her mother’s cancer return and, after five years of flying back and forth to Idaho to help her, Harris’ mother passed away in 2018. Following her mother’s death, Harris realized that she was ready to head back to school to finish her bachelor’s degree.
“In the last weeks of my mom’s life, I promised her that I would do it, that I would finish school, so it is a promise kept,” Harris said. I went back to the VA, I got into a lot of groups, and I just did a reset. I am so thankful and grateful for the VA for all they have done for me.”
By this time, Harris had moved from Lake County to Twinsburg, and she discovered she could take classes at Kent State and complete her bachelor’s degree without leaving her community. She enrolled in 2020 and in three years, despite the pandemic, achieved her dream that began 27 years prior.
“I spent three years at Twinsburg, through COVID and all,” Harris said, explaining that she took a combination of in-person and online classes.
“I am such an advocate for education,” she said, “When you have had to fight for what you want to do every step of the way it was important to me to finish this. I wanted to do it. It just meant a lot to me.”
Harris’ family has expanded to now include nine grandchildren, in addition to the eight children she raised, several of whom were there to watch her walk the stage and receive her diploma on Dec. 16, 2023.
“Those grandbabies who came to see me graduate, my hope is that it planted a seed in them,” she said. Her father also was able to watch the ceremony online.
“It was amazing, I had people all over the world watching me,” Harris said. “I just wanted to jump out of my skin. It was surreal. I did it! I finally did it!”
Now, Harris is excited about her new role as a Kent State alumna and hopes to stay involved with the university.
“There was a time when I couldn’t even leave my home. Trauma is a real thing. To accomplish this means everything to me. It was like an out-of-body experience walking across that stage and to look out and see my family there,” Harris said. “I’m so appreciative and I’m such an advocate for education. You can do it if you want.”