Kelly Bogart is only graduating because of her children. She never wanted to be a student.

When Bogart first started her job as an administrative assistant at Syracuse University nine years ago, she was not interested in pursuing a degree. She only wanted to work at SU as an administrative secretary so she could receive free tuition for her three children.

But as an SU employee, Bogart is given 12 free credit hours a year. She will receive her bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in fine arts next week at commencement as she completes nine years of schoolwork at SU’s school for part-time students, University College. She and 70 other part-time students will graduate together.

Bogart said she wants to give her children the opportunities she never had growing up.
‘One of the first questions asked while I was getting settled my first couple of weeks was, ‘Are you going to take any classes?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m here for my kids.”

Born in Syracuse and raised in Baldwinsville, N.Y., with two siblings and a single mother, Bogart said SU was never an option for her. Instead, she went to Onondaga Community College for a brief while, but eventually left.

To her, receiving a paycheck was better than receiving an education she didn’t even enjoy. ‘They put me in a computer science program and I hated it. Hated it,’ Bogart said.
 
Pictures of Bogart’s children decorate every wall of her office — some are collages, some are portraits. Each photo serves as a reminder of why she works at SU. Even as she began to take classes, her children’s future was still the priority.

If anything, being a part-time student has only helped Bogart’s children. When they have homework, Bogart sits down at the dining room table to do her homework with them. It is with her personal pursuit for knowledge that Bogart pushes her children to grow academically.

‘She’s always encouraged them to find out what they want to do, and go do it,’ said Bogart’s husband, Chris. ‘She’s never been one to say ‘you can’t do it.”

Even with the family study halls, the past nine years have not been easy between juggling classes, work and family, Kelly said.

‘It’s been tough. I’m not saying there hasn’t been a lot of stress,’ her husband said.

For Bogart, most class projects can’t start until the kids are picked up from practice. Not until dinner’s done. Not until the kids are put to bed. Chris remembers plenty of times when Kelly was up past 2 a.m. writing papers.

In fact, she has not even taken a lunch break in nine years. There’s no time to go to a dining center or Marshall Street. Instead, she’s been eating in lecture halls while taking notes in art history. When her class, or rather, ‘lunch break,’ is over, she’s racing back to Eggers Hall for work.

‘For the past nine years my lunch is taken in a classroom somewhere,’ Bogart said. ‘When I go to class, I’m there strictly for class. I don’t hang out afterward.’

‘I often wonder how she does it all. I know she’s got strong family support, support from us,’ said Karen Cimilluca, who has been Bogart’s co-worker for the past nine years. ‘Kelly’s the type of person that gets something in her head and she just pushes until it gets done.’

Hailing from a different generation, Bogart takes classes with young adults, a difficult experience. She has different points of reference in life, and different memories. During one of her geography classes, her professor was talking about the eruption of Mount Saint Helen in 1980. The professor prefaced that people in the class were not around for the incident. But Bogart was.

‘I’m sitting in the front row going, ‘Yeah, I remember that,” Bogart said. ‘It happens quite a bit.’

Bogart can’t talk with other students about that party last weekend or comment on this year’s Juice Jam.

‘Generally, I feel more like an outsider because I don’t have time to connect with these people and there’s really nothing that they need or want to connect with me for,’ Bogart said. ‘We’re just two different groups.’

But it’s been worth it. Being a part-time student at SU has provided Bogart with opportunities she was never able to experience as a young adult. As an undergraduate, Bogart traveled to Italy, London and France — an experience she believes changed her entire worldview. But to study something she has an actual interest in, that’s been her biggest reward.

‘I have that accomplishment to say ‘this is what I’m capable of,” Bogart said. ‘I always knew I was going to go to college, and I always told myself that I was going to graduate.’

This is not just a victory for Bogart, it’s a victory for her entire family. The payback for every missed trip to the movies, for every time Chris has taken care of the kids when she was studying.

‘It’s not just me up there, it’s everybody who has sacrificed along the way,’ Bogart said. ‘When I get to say I’m done, they all get to say they’re done, too.’

Just because she will be receiving her degree doesn’t mean Bogart will be leaving SU anytime soon. Sure, the road to graduation hasn’t been easy, but that doesn’t mean she will stop taking classes.

While she’s aware that this will open more doors for her, all Bogart wants to do is keep learning. She wants to keep discovering. To her, classes are not a chore but a place to keep pushing herself — and most importantly — her family.

‘It’s never a waste,’ Bogart said. ‘Not ever.’
 
ansteinb@syr.edu
 

Published on May 11, 2010 at 12:00 pm