Stephanie McKinney began working toward her college degree in 1986, when she learned it was the only thing standing between her and her dream of joining the Peace Corps.
Now 22 years later, McKinney, of Washington Street, is still dreaming of helping the developing world and tomorrow will receive her bachelor's degree in social work from Suffolk University in Boston, completing an experience in higher education carved out of lunch breaks and commuter train study sessions, longer than many of her fellow graduates are old.
"Nobody can take your education and mind away from you," McKinney, 45, said this week. "Even when times are tough, remember the reward will be satisfying and never give up."
McKinney, who was raised by foster parents Dorothy and Richard Skillen on Lincoln Street, started her education at Plum Cove Elementary School and graduated Gloucester High School in 1980 with ideas about going into the fashion industry.
But after a few classes in design at Essex Agricultural and Technical High School in Danvers, McKinney realized her heart wasn't in the glamour business and left school to work, first at Gorton's and then for a Boston law firm doing clerical work.
It was at the law firm that McKinney, who for years had wanted to join the Peace Corps, discovered that a four-year degree was a prerequisite for the organization and decided that continuing her education was something worth fighting for.
"I had always wanted to help people, but knew I had to get my act together," McKinney said. "I started taking classes at North Shore Community College and then Northeastern University during my lunch hours."
McKinney transferred to Suffolk University in 1989, first majoring in marketing and then, after realizing she didn't want to sell things, to social work.
But a year later, academics, the Peace Corps and everything else took a back seat when McKinney became pregnant and gave birth to her daughter, Shawnamandela.
For the next decade, with finances tight and the demands of being a single mother taking her away from books and classes, McKinney's education was an on-again, off-again project.
After leaving Suffolk in 1992, she went back in 1996, and then couldn't afford to take any more classes until 2004, when she had to convince the dean that she was serious about finishing her degree.
After a lull in 2005, McKinney, working as a records coordinator at law firm Scadden, Arps, was able to take two classes each semester and during the summer, usually during her lunch hour and after work. This spring she earned enough credits to graduate 22 years after taking her first college classes and 19 years after she first enrolled at Suffolk.
McKinney said one of the main reasons she persevered at Suffolk was to set a good example for Shawnamandela, named after her father and Nelson Mandela, who is now a junior at Gloucester High School. She credits her parents, the Skillens, with setting a good example for her and said Dorothy Skillen, 89, is very proud.
"A lot of the reason I did this was to be a good role model for her," McKinney said. "I am looking at colleges for her and just trying to keep her on track."
McKinney said her short-term goal is to try to use what she has learned in school to help others at a nonprofit organization in Gloucester, such as Wellspring House or Action Inc. In the long term, when her daughter is on her way, McKinney said she would like to start work on her master's degree or finally realize her dream of serving in the Peace Corps.
"First I want to do something for the city of Gloucester, which has been so good to me," McKinney said. "But I am still thinking about the Peace Corps, maybe later, somewhere down the line."
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Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.
