Southeast students took varying paths to Saturday's graduation

Although they're two years apart, sisters Allison Caines and Jordan Smith do everything together. That includes graduating from Southeast Missouri State University. The ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Show Me Center.

Caines will graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in English, with a minor in political science. Smith will receive a bachelor of science in education with a major in elementary education. Smith, 21, of Jackson and Caines, 23, of Cape Girardeau are motivated by their father, David Smith.

"When we were younger, when dad came home from work -- he worked 12-hour shifts -- he would say, 'Girls, promise me you'll go to college one day, graduate and get a job you love,'" Smith said.

As children, Smith said, they would laugh, because he said this every day. But they will be the first people in their immediate family to earn college degrees.

Sisters Allison Caines, left, of Cape Girardeau and Jordan Smith of Jackson will graduate from Southeast Missouri State University on Saturday. (Courtesy photo)

"We didn't realize what a gift he was giving us," Smith said.

Smith is graduating early, and Caines ran a little late because she got married to husband Chris and had a son, 15-month-old

`Matthew.

When she started school, Caines intended to be a lawyer. But after commencement, she plans to start a part-time job at First Missouri State Bank.

Smith is taking a long-term substitute third-grade teaching position at the Nell Holcomb School District and plans to get a master's degree.

The sisters say having each other is what got them to this point.

"We just encouraged each other," Caines said. "We were never having a down day at the same time. We picked each other up. It was great. It was just like having a built-in best friend at college. ... She worked three part-time jobs. I worked full time for a little bit. We just needed each other, I think."

Caines and Smith have a sister, 15-year-old Taylor, at Jackson High School.

"She has a lot to live up to," Smith said.

Like Caines and Smith, Paula Fears-McCormack and her daughter, Mandy Hente, both of Cape Girardeau, made it through Southeast on the buddy system. They shared books, notes from classes already taken, frustrations, fears and thrills.

Fears-McCormack, 41, will receive a bachelor of general studies degree, and Hente, who started at University of Missouri and transferred to Southeast, will receive a bachelor of science in psychology with a minor in social work. Both want to get master's degrees -- Fears-McCormack aspires to be a professor and Hente a social worker.

However, they plan to separate, with McCormack staying at Southeast and Hente attending Saint Louis University, which she said has a top-notch social work program.

This will be the first commencement exercise for Fears-McCormack, who watched her two daughters, Brittany and Mandy, walk the stage. She still has 11-year-old Jack at home.

Growing up blocks from Southeast, Fears-McCormack always wanted to attend school there, but didn't have a chance later in life and didn't let anything stop her. In her four and a half years of school, she's came down with double pneumonia, endured the death of her mother, gotten divorced and had three surgeries.

"None of it ever made me take a semester off or drop a class. I continued to do my work and have a pretty decent GPA," Fears-McCormack said. "You don't let things like that stop you. It's a turn of events that happen in life. You just keep going ... so I don't take excuses from anybody."

Hente, 22, has faced issues as well, but was determined to ride it out. Along with her class schedule, she works an average 35 hours a week at Schnucks and cleans a business with a family friend two nights a week.

Hente originally was going to start at Saint Louis University in January, "but this semester has been my hardest."

"I started my grad school application back in August. I emailed everyone about references, and somehow time just got away and I haven't finished it yet, so as soon as next week is here after finals," she's tackling it, Hente said.

In recent weeks, mother nor daughter has had much time to think about the emotions they'll feel when they walk the stage Saturday.

"I'm just trying to think about all the papers I have to write and the finals I have to take," Fears-McCormack said Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill is the keynote speaker at graduation, where 740 students will participate.

An honors convocation will be at 10:30 a.m. in the Show Me Center to honor 201 undergraduates, with 43 receiving master's degrees and nine receiving specialist degrees. Dr. Mike Aide, professor of agriculture and chairman of the Department of Agriculture at Southeast, will present the convocation address.

Among the undergraduate students at the convocation, 39 will graduate summa cum laude (3.9 to 4.0 cumulative GPA); 48 will graduate magna cum laude (3.75 to 3.89 GPA); and 96 will graduate cum laude (3.5 to 3.74 cumulative GPA). Of the 43 graduate and specialist students at the Honors Convocation, 37 will graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Graduate students participating in the Honors Convocation must have achieved at least a 3.9 grade-point average.

Ten undergraduate students with a 4.0 GPA will be honored at commencement.

The Southeast Brass Quintet, under the coordination of Marc Fulgham, will perform during the commencement. Singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the Alma Mater will be Megan Statler, a graduating senior from Perryville, Mo., who will receive a bachelor of music degree in performance, vocal option.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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