Sharon Mallory had retired for some time when her daughter Lauren Mallory decided to pursue her doctoral degree.
“When she was starting, I made a joke, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it,’” Sharon said to WRIC. “And she was like, ‘Yeah, come on and do it with me for real, and we can do this together!’”
Sharon’s joke turned into something big for the family last month when the two Chesterfield County women got their doctorates together.
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Sharon and her daughter Lauren walked across the same stage at Liberty University on May 8 to receive their doctorate degrees with pride.
Sharon received her Doctorate of Education in Higher Education Administration with a concentration in educational leadership, while Lauren received her Doctorate of Philosophy in Public Administration and Policy.
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But the road to getting there wasn’t always smooth, the two admitted.
“There were a couple times I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Sharon said. “I am a woman of a certain age and I hadn’t been in school in a minute. But [my daughter] was very encouraging, and my granddaughter, too, helping to keep me on point.”
Lauren had always wanted to earn her Ph.D. but didn’t know it could take that long and be challenging.
“The hardest part was sticking to getting the dissertation done … it was a time I wanted to quit,” Lauren said.
Her 15-year-old daughter however kept her on track and Lauren wasn’t ready to disappoint her daughter.
“I wanted to give her a good example of what it means to keep pushing through something that you start, not be a quitter,” Lauren said. “Just being able to say ‘I stuck with what I had planned for my life.’”
Lauren’s mother Sharon now has three degrees she earned while being a mother and a wife.
“They’ve seen me receive my bachelor’s, they’ve seen me receive my master’s, and they saw me receive my doctorate,” Sharon said.
All the same, she is very proud of her daughter’s recent feat.
“I’m more proud of her than I am of myself, for making this accomplishment,” Sharon said.
