You’ve knocked out your general education classes, crushed your major courses, and declared victory over your major capstone project. Time to graduate, right? Not just yet. You may still have some electives to fulfill before you earn your degree at UAGC.

If at first you don’t succeed, never, ever stop trying. As current student Jade Poates has discovered, it may have taken her a few attempts to go back to school — four to be exact —but this go-around, she’s nailing it. Not only is she on the Dean’s List, as well as a member of the Golden Key Honour Society, but she serves as a founding officer for the newly established Ashford* Black Community (ABC) Club on LinkedIn.

Despite facing a big hurdle their sophomore year, Rebecca Wolfe and Ashlyn Hemmer say it is definitely their strong friendship that helped them graduate together from Ashford University* in 2018. Their excitement around seeing each other in person for the first time since last July was visible as we sat down the day before graduation to talk to them about their emotional journey together the past four years. 

STEM. It’s a popular term these days, associated with everything from school curriculum discussions to promoting toy sales. An acronym created by its four pillars — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math — there’s a good reason you hear about it so often.