Rebecca Ganger, a 2008 graduate and elementary education major, was spotlighted in the Kankakee Daily Journal on Sunday, May 4, celebrating her achievement of an almost 20 year goal: graduation. To text from the article is below. The School of Education congratulates Rebecca and all of our 2008 graduates!
Single mom magna cum laude
05/03/2008, 11:27 pm
By Janet Cremer
janetcremer@daily-journal.com
815-937-3384
The chill in the air during Saturday’s Olivet Nazarene University graduation ceremonies had little effect on Rebecca Ganger of Bradley, one of the record 521 undergraduates to cross the dais.
Holding her coveted diploma, the 38-year-old basked in the warmth of achievement.
It was “a long time coming,” Ganger said of her graduation and bachelor of science degree in elementary education. A single mom, she had begun taking college classes at nights and during the summer, some 20 years ago at Kankakee Community College.
At the same time, she worked as a teacher’s aide at Kennedy Middle School in Kankakee. She later quit that job to have more time to devote to ONU classes, a decision that forced her to rely heavily on the financial support of her parents, Ron and Gale Dodge of Manteno.
“My mom and dad were wonderful and helped me out tremendously,” she said.
But now, their help and Ganger’s hard work has paid off.
Not only did she manage to graduate magna cum laude — the next to the highest of three special honors for above average grades– but she’s already landed a job as a teacher at Manteno Middle School.
“It’s very exciting,” Ganger said of her new job, which will start this coming school year.
She joins teaching tradition in the Dodge family. Her parents each taught 32 years at Manteno and her sister, Robin Hamann of Grant Park, is a speech pathologist at the Peotone School District.
Just as significant is what her message of hard work and perseverance has sent to her son, Zach, a sophomore at Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School.
“He knows what it takes,” she said of her son witnessing time spent hitting the books. The lesson is especially significant since Zach has dreams of being an orthodontist.
So how does Ganger plan to celebrate, with 20 years’ worth of hard work finally behind her?
Well, she and Zach plan to battle it out in boxing match courtesy of her family’s graduation gift — a Nintendo Wii.
