Twenty-five years and a lot of determination.

Susie Anderson wasnt exactly known as an academic scholar back in her day at tiny Clay-Batelle High School in western Monongalia Countyand shes definitely not shy about admitting that fact.

That was my reputation in high school,said Anderson, 42, a West Virginia University campus service supervisor who will don a cap and gown Sunday (Dec. 11) to mark the completion of her bachelors degree during the Universitys December Convocation at the Coliseum.

I just kind of floated along,she said.You know those people who say they werent known for their grades? I was known for mine. Because they were so bad.

She went to work as a custodian at WVU after high school. She got married, had a son (now a 19-year-old who is very proud of the soon-to-be college graduate), then got divorced.

Five years ago, the single mother applied for a supervisory position she knew full well she could dobut she didnt get the job because she didnt have a college degree.

Well, thats when I really started thinking about my life,she said.I knew I had to start doing some things if I ever wanted to better myself. It was time to go to college.

She enrolled in WVU s Regents Bachelors of Arts program, a general bachelors degree geared to students returning to the classroom later in life. She was determined, even if she was intimidated. She isnt shy about admitting that, either.

Id be sitting in class just trying to shrink,she said.It was like, �€~Please dont call on me.A three-page paper was outrageous. I was nervous and overwhelmed.

But not for long.

Because she did work hard, when she was called on in class, more often that not, she had an answer and insight. Her life experience shone in classes full of people several years younger than she.

The educator who taught the first college class she ever sat in noticed that immediately.

Dr. Barbara Howe, who also directs WVU s Center for Womens Studies, remembers Andersons contributions to that Introduction to Womens Studies class five years ago.

To the traditional-aged students, a lot of the readings about womens lives had to seem like situations from an ancient history textbook since so much has changed,Howe said.But Susie could personalize those issues. And that made all the difference for the class.

Anderson now wants to make a difference for women from western Monongalia County who are in the same straits she was in not so long ago.

Shes a member of WVU s Council for Womens Concerns, a key organizer of the annualMoms Turn to Learnevent which introduces women to educational opportunities at the Universityfrom the multitude of course offerings to the relative ease of applying for financial aid.

Now she wants to host aMoms Turn to Learngathering in the Clay-Batelle areajust because.

I really want to hit it out there on the western end of the county,she said.I talk to a lot of women from there, and I tell them, �€~Ladies, Im a single mom. I work full-time. I never missed one of my sons wrestling matches or football games. If I can do all that and earn a degree, you can, too. Just tell yourself thats what youre going to do.

Sundays ceremony is at 1:30 p.m. The keynote speaker is Jeanette Walls, an MSNBC reporter and columnist who grew up poor in West Virginia and went on to college and then to write for New York Magazine, Esquire and USA Today before joining the cable and Internet news network.

Her inspirational story, like Andersons, will speak to the empowerment of a college education.