Marine Corps Base Quantico -- On July 16 adult students, including service members, spouses and civilian employees, received graduation certificates from the Voluntary Education Center in a joint ceremony held at The Clubs at Quantico. The students were enrolled at a total of 23 different schools and earned academic credentials ranging from certificates through doctoral degrees.

Melora McVicker, education services officer at the VEC, said the ceremony was open to anyone taking classes at the seven schools with satellite campuses aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico or another school affiliated with the base, as well as anyone who has worked with VEC staff and used tuition assistance or the GI Bill to earn a degree from another school. McVicker said 50 students attended the ceremony, though hundreds have earned degrees within the last year, and their names were also printed in the ceremony program.

Giving the commencement address was Army veteran Stedman Graham, the chairman and chief executive officer of a management and marketing consulting company based in Chicago. Graham regularly lectures and conducts seminars for businesses and education organizations on identity development and leadership, and he is an accomplished author.

Graham told the students, “You need to understand who you are and work on yourself … Find out what you love. Love is the foundation for growth and development.” He emphasized that the students need to form their own identity and resist the preconceived notions others may have and labels people will try to place on them.

Sgt. Biannca Clarke, an assistant monitor with Manpower Management Officer Assignments at MCBQ, was one of the students who received her degree during the ceremony. Clarke earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ashford University. She said she started taking classes at a community college in North Carolina in 2008, but after her first son was born, she began taking classes online. Cheering her on at the ceremony were several Marines she worked with and her sister, Gunnery Sgt. Tawanda Hanible.

“I think it’s pretty extraordinary what she did, being an active duty service member and a single mother of two,” Hanible said.

McVicker said one of the students she was most proud of was Joyce Murphy, who earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Murphy is the program manager for the Family Readiness Program aboard the base, a military spouse and mother of two. Murphy said she received her associate’s degree 30 years ago, but “life happens,” and between deployments, multiple permanent change of station moves and raising two children she didn’t have the time to earn a bachelor’s degree until recently.

When asked how she will put her new degree to use, Murphy responded, “I will continue to serve the military as the Family Readiness Program manager.”