Susan Wright ’26 took her first class at Syracuse University in the fall of 1987, the same year she started working in the registrar’s office. Working full-time, she wasn’t able to take a class every semester, but credit by credit, balancing her job and personal life, she continued to forge ahead, earning an associate degree in 1998.

She immediately set her sights on her next degree—a bachelor’s. Through the decades, after her work was done in the registrar’s office, she’d turn her attention to the class she was taking.

At Sunday’s Commencement, 28 years after she started working toward the degree, Wright  graduated with magna cum laude honors, earning a bachelor’s in liberal studies and a minor in linguistics. She was also awarded the Nancy C. Gelling Award from the College of Professional Studies. The award is presented to the commuter, part-time graduate with the highest overall grade point average. It honors students who have demonstrated exceptional academic achievement while balancing the challenges of being part-time, commuter students.

Wright, 72, says she’s still floored by receiving the award.

“I’m like me, really? I’ve just been plodding away,” she says.

Pursuing Her Interests, One Credit at a Time

Wright worked in the registrar’s office until her retirement in 2021. Once she wasn’t working full-time, she was able to take classes during the day, which she says “made a big difference.”

“A couple semesters, I took two because I could, because I couldn’t decide between which one I liked better,” she says. “So I did them both, and they just kind of snowballed, and here I am at the end.”

Working in the registrar’s office through the years was rewarding. She enjoyed helping people across the University.

“The nice thing about being a student, as well as being staff, is you get to see both sides of it,” Wright says. “You know how things are going in the classroom, as well as the things that need to be done in order to get that person to the classroom.”Her first job in the registrar’s office was working as a frontline staff member, fielding questions from students who came into the office. This was long before MySlice or Self-Service.

“You waited to talk to one of us, and we worked with you to try and figure out what the problem was and how to help and how to hopefully send someone away with a solution,” she says.

Being a part-time student throughout her time in the office, she says, added another helpful layer in assisting the students who came in. Later, as her roles changed and grew, she went on to do more managing and building processes behind the scenes and working with the curriculum committee in the University Senate.

Wright says there were many times over the years when she couldn’t pursue her own classes, when there was too much going on with work or her personal life.

“That’s why it’s taken so long,” she says.

She was drawn to liberal studies because she loved that she had access to a broad spectrum of disciplines.

It led her to taking a few classes in criminal justice and a few in geography, which she wasn’t expecting to enjoy as much as she did. Over the years, the feeling was the same, that craving to learn more and more skills.

“I have very eclectic tastes, so I’m like, ‘Oh, a little of this, a little of that, how about some more of that? How about some more of that?’” Wright says. “And it was nice to be able to do that and have that be a degree program.”

Never Give Up

Wright says she hopes others considering pursuing a degree part-time take this lesson from her journey: don’t give up. Take it semester by semester, and if you need to take a break because of other things going on in your life, that’s OK.

She says not to let the fact that it might take time slow you down, just keep plugging away.

“Life will intervene, and you just kind of let life do its thing, and then you get back to it,” she says.

Wright also recommends taking a look at what’s going on in your life and asking if you can put in the work needed for a class. If the answer is yes, go for it. If not, wait until the next time the class is offered, or look for another the next semester. She says to make sure you know the requirements for the degree you’re interested in, look at the course catalogue and consider whether the classes meet at times you can attend.

“When I started, everything was on campus, in-person,” she says.

These days there are a lot more offerings for online classes and programs available to students who are working full-time and pursuing a degree part-time, she says.

“Really the thing is, don’t give up, keep going,” Wright says.

The University has been such a big part of her life as a staff member and student over the decades that Wright says she plans to keep supporting the campus as best she can. For now, she plans to embrace her free time in retirement as a graduate of the University.

“I’m just going to enjoy my retirement, and then figure out what else I can learn?” she says. “There’s learning opportunities out there and honing some skills that I already have.”