MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Michele Adams already knows one photograph she wants to take after walking across Middle Tennessee State University’s commencement stage Saturday, Dec. 12 at Murphy Center.

In it will be her husband, Chris, and their young sons, Cairo and Caelum. Years from now, she hopes it will show her boys what finishing what you started looks like.

More than documenting the completion of a degree, the photograph will capture the fulfillment of a promise Adams made 14 years earlier to the great-grandmother she affectionately called MaDear.

Now 37, the Nashville native is preparing to earn a bachelor of science in integrated studies with a concentration in strategic leadership through MTSU’s University College — 19 years after she first began pursuing a college degree.

A promise carried

Adams enrolled at the University of Kentucky in 2007, but left in 2010 after experiencing both health and academic challenges.

Two years later, as MaDear neared the end of her life, she communicated one final request in a single word: “books.”

Adams turned to her Nana for help understanding what MaDear was trying to say.

“She said, ‘She wants you to finish college,’” Adams recalled. “I said, ‘OK, I promise I will.’ I never forgot that day.”

While Adams intended to keep that promise, she did not know when or how.

In the years that followed, Adams built a successful leadership career, married and became a mother. She spent 11 years in the restaurant industry before moving into customer service and organizational leadership. Today, she serves as an enterprise success manager at Reach, where she manages approximately 35 team members and helps dental practices address administrative needs through virtual support.

“I’ve done a lot without this degree,” Adams said. “It’s not about that. It’s really about completing something that I started.”

Her first application was unsuccessful because grades from her earlier college experience were too low for admission. Although Adams pointed to the professional record she had built since leaving school, she was told she would first need to improve her GPA.

It felt like a Catch-22. She needed to raise her academic standing but could not do so without first being readmitted.

A path forward emerged when Adams saw longtime family friend and MTSU graduate Michelle Ziegler sharing her experience as a returning student.

“Michelle was sharing her story online about her experience at MTSU,” Adams said. “I was inspired by Michelle going back, so I thought, ‘Let me just try MTSU. Let me see what happens.’”

When an admissions decision arrived in November 2024, she opened it with Chris by her side.

“I was either going to cry, or I was going to cry,” Adams said.

Then confetti appeared on the screen.

“I thought, ‘Wait, I really got in?’”

Admitted on academic probation, Adams quickly showed that her past academic performance record no longer defined her, maintaining a 3.8 GPA throughout her time at MTSU.

Experience becomes progress

Finishing her degree, she initially thought, could take several years, but when she learned that knowledge gained through her career could become part of her path forward, everything changed.

Through MTSU’s Prior Learning Assessment process, Adams developed a portfolio demonstrating college-level learning gained through her professional and leadership experience. The portfolio earned her more than a dozen credit hours, supplementing credits transferred from her previous college.

“I thought, ‘Oh, I can do this now,’” Adams said. “‘This is not going to take five years.’”

The credits helped move her expected graduation from December 2027 to December 2026.

Adams also credits University College advisor Rodney Robbins with helping her avoid repeating material, choosing courses aligned with her interests and understanding how each credit moved her closer to graduation.

Her coursework has expanded how she views the leadership work she already performs. An applied leadership course and conversations with faculty members, including Deana Meadows Raffo and Leigh Anne Clark, sparked a new interest in human resources and how she might create more intentional workplace practices.

MTSU also offered flexibility and accessibility tools that helped her approach learning differently as an adult student with dyslexia.

For Adams, that experience reflects an institution prepared to meet adult learners within the realities of their lives.

“It is remarkable the way MTSU wants you to succeed,” Adams said. “It doesn’t feel like, ‘We want you to succeed because our name will be on your degree.’ It feels like, ‘We want you to succeed because your name is going to be on this degree.’”

Intentionality in a full life

Returning to college has required Adams to balance a full-time leadership role, part-time restaurant work and three courses while raising two young sons with her husband.

“Intentionality has been the word of the season,” Adams said. “I have to be intentional about the work I do, my homework and my family.”

That may mean completing an assignment instead of watching a football game, removing social media from her phone or protecting an afternoon at the park with Cairo and Caelum.

Her professional experience has also taught her to remain calm and determine which responsibility needs her attention first.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s food or homework. It does not help to panic,” she said.

Her willingness to work through discomfort is one of the clearest differences Adams sees between the student she was and the student she has become.

“School got uncomfortable for me,” Adams said. “I wasn’t succeeding, and it got uncomfortable, so I left. That un-comfortability is necessary. I’m grateful that I’m able to finish now. Even though it took so long, this is when I was supposed to finish. It’s been uncomfortable, but it’s been necessary.”

The example moves forward

Adams now recognizes that sharing the parts of her journey that once carried guilt may help another adult take a first step.

Her advice is simple: Reach out, ask what is possible and start somewhere — even if that means taking one class at a time.

After Adams accepts her diploma Dec. 12 with Chris, Cairo and Caelum watching, the photograph they take together will capture the life she built during the years between starting and finishing college.

It will also preserve the promise she carried for 14 years—and finally kept.

For more information on MTSU’s Adult Degree Completion Program, visit mtsu.edu/finishnow.

— Dustin Stout ([email protected])