SANTA MONICA COLLEGE At the tender age of 18, with a baby in her arms, Darcy Coleman had reached a fork in the road — attend college or work full-time to provide a financially stable life for her newborn daughter.
Today, the 40-year-old Coleman will stand alongside her 22-year-old daughter, Darlyn, in front of hundreds of well-wishers, as the mother and daughter graduate together from Santa Monica College, embarking on new chapters in their lives.
Those new chapters include another trip to college for both of them, with Darcy matriculating to Pepperdine University in the fall and Darlyn heading south to the University of California at San Diego.
As the elder Coleman learned more than seven years ago, the best way teach a lesson to a child might just be showing them how it’s done.
When Darlyn started attending high school, just a few years away from post-secondary education, Darcy decided to begin what she had been putting off for 15 years — a college education. The timing seemed perfect, as her work schedule began to ease.
“When I had her, I put it (college) on the back burner to make sure she had everything she needed,” said Darcy, a project coordina-tor for Oasis West Realty.“I wanted her to be proud of me.”
Attending college at 33 years old, Darcy said she wasn’t sure what to expect, fearing that she might be the oldest student at Santa Monica College.
She was pleasantly surprised to find the campus was crawling with working adults, many of whom had returned to SMC to finish up the few credits that left them shy of a degree.
Though she started out taking one or two classes a semester in the evening, the first few years of college were the most challenging for Darcy as she juggled a full-time job with school and raising a teenager.
“I used to tell that to my daughter — to go right in and don’t get distracted,”Darcy said of attending college straight out of high school.
Four years after Darcy began her life as a college student, her daughter followed suit at the same institution, selecting SMC after learning it was one of the top University of California and California State University feeder schools in the state.
The Colemans seldom saw each other on campus as Darlyn had scheduled the majority of her classes in the morning and Darcy in the evening.
“At first, I found it weird to go to the same school as my mom,” Darlyn said. “I would rather be going to the same school than her not being in school — than keeping the 9-5 job without a degree.”
It wasn’t until spring semester of this year that Darlyn and Darcy found themselves sitting before the same professor.
The mother and daughter both enrolled in a statistics course and learned the benefits of taking a class with a family member. They shared notes, carpooled to school from their Inglewood home and studied together. When one person missed a class, the other was right there with a stack of notes.
But then, there were the drawbacks. “I couldn’t laugh and talk in class as I would’ve if my mom wasn’t there,” Darlyn joked.“I think it pushed me in a positive way.”
Today’s graduation ceremony will also mark the end of an era for the mother and daughter, with Darlyn moving to San Diego this fall. It will mark the first time that Darcy and Darlyn will live apart.
Darlyn has been itching to move away from Los Angeles, saying she’s heard for the past two years about the academic excellence at UCSD. The aspiring FBI agent plans to major in sociology in San Diego.
“I thought it would be cool to move out on my own,” Darlyn said. “I’m at an age where I’m more mature and more focused on my future.”
Pepperdine University was strongly recommended to Darcy, who said many of her colleagues attended either UCLA or Pepperdine. She chose the latter for the school’s program for full-time working executives and plans to major in business or accounting, with a minor in real estate.
The ceremony tonight carries special meaning for Darcy, who will be graduating in honor of her mother, a 30-year registered nurse who died in 2003. It was her mother’s dream for Darcy to graduate from college.
As mother and daughter, decked out in cap and gown, prepare to face a future that will take them in different paths in life, Darlyn will be able to look at her mother, a woman who raised her with no post-high school education, and see a college graduate.
“A lot of places, even if you have (work) experience, you need a degree as well,” Darlyn said.“I thought it was good at her age to still be going to college. She’s dedicated and goal oriented.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 12, 2007. Read the original PDF.