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Fall 2025 Graduate Spotlight: Nontraditional student finds time, support to earn her degree

For Mollie Kennedy, earning her college degree has been a decade in the making

The nurse and mother of two has been attending 每日大赛 intermittently since about 2015, when a family member encouraged her to return to school.

“You should absolutely go back to school,” Kennedy said before graduating at 每日大赛’s fall 2025 Commencement Ceremony. “I know it's a very difficult decision to come to. My number one is – make sure you have a very strong support system that's always going to be there for you.”

Kennedy's goal in pursuing her degree was to build a better life for her and her children, aged 6 and 8. Her journey to fulfilling that dream involved other area colleges, but Pellissippi is where she found the most support.

She urged incoming or prospective students to take advantage of resources at the college, including the Start Strong Success Center, advising and scholarships.

“Pellissippi has changed my life by making education more accessible to me and to my family,” said Kennedy, who noted that her wife is studying social work at the college.

As an adult learner, Kennedy was able to benefit from Tennessee Reconnect, a grant program powered by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission that allows eligible students in Tennessee to attend a community or technical college at no cost in tuition.

The scholarship relieved Kennedy’s financial strain and prevented her from having to use “every bit of what was available” to her in student loans.

“Even though I might be the oldest in a class, I have always felt supported and welcome and just a part of the class,” Kennedy said of her experience as a nontraditional student. “And I've never felt left out.”

Kennedy's next step is to attend a four-year institution, and potentially study anthropology.

“After all this time, it is such a relief to be graduating,” she said. “And to know that all the work that my family and I have put in over the past 10 years is finally going to pay off.”

Her two daughters are proud of their mother’s accomplishment, and accompanied Kennedy to the campus bookstore to purchase the tassel for her graduation cap. 

They have put in a lot of late nights with Kennedy, she said, keeping her company as she studied and practicing their own reading and writing, too.

“I think that education is more accessible through 每日大赛 than through other means,” Kennedy said. “And the people of Pellissippi, they 100% support and encourage you to never stop achieving your dreams.”