Now retired from teaching at Nashville, Tennessee, public schools, Doris Thomas has achieved a lot in her 75 years. She’s been a contributor to books that are now in the Library of Congress. She’s raised wonderful children who are nurses, professors, and legal professionals. She’s escaped abject poverty and built a life with her loving husband.

Now, it’s time for her next accomplishment — a bachelor’s degree in integrated studies through MTSU’s University College, which offers numerous services to support nontraditional students seeking their degrees. 

“When I told my kids I was going to enroll at Middle Tennessee State they were so excited,” Thomas said from her home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. “They were wanting to throw me a party, and they were Facetiming me from all over the country. They’re thrilled.” 

Thomas is thrilled, too, because, in her words, she’s lived “many lives” in her lifetime. She said that in order to know her story one has to know that she grew up in abject poverty as a kid in south Georgia. 

She was raised in a 400-square-foot home with six other people where they had no running water and no heat in the winter. The only clothes she had were given to her by people at the school. The first book she had came from someone at the school, too. It was a dictionary given to her as a Christmas present. 

“They had wrapped it up to give to someone else, but they felt sorry for me I guess,” Thomas said. “I took that dictionary home and read it every day and every night.” 

That dictionary is what got her interested in education, she said. She studied it and started winning writing contests and spelling bees. However, that didn’t improve her situation at school or at home. The high school was hard to get to because it was in a different town, and they didn’t try to help the kids from her area. The situation got worse when she came back from school one day and her entire family had left their home. 

“I stayed with different friends after my family left,” Thomas said. “I had to quit going to school because I was all over the place.” 

Thomas made her way up to Atlanta, to Baltimore, and several other cities before finding a more permanent housing situation in her mid-20s. She lived in public housing and was invited to a skating rink one day where she met her now husband, Shyrel. That was in 1965. 

‘Now is the time for MTSU’

Now, almost 60 years later, Doris said that Shyrel is jokingly calling her his “college girl.” 

“Now is the time for MTSU,” Thomas said. “I’ve done a lot of teaching over the years, I’ve worked in publishing, and I still have dreams that I want to achieve.” 

Thomas had been teaching in some way or another for most of her career — as a vocational instructor, proctor, and Metro Nashville Public School teacher — and while taking courses at MTSU to renew her licenses — her work as a career technical education teacher didn’t require a degree — she started to think about what it would be like to be a student herself pursuing a bachelor’s degree. 

“When I was considering coming back, I called the number for MTSU and asked them if they had programs for ‘someone like me,’” she said. “Since that moment, I have been treated so well and I am just overjoyed with my experience so far.” 

For now, Thomas is focusing on testing out of some courses, enrolling in the Prior Learning Assessment Program to possibly earn college credit from previous work certifications, training and experience, and her expository writing course. 

“I’m so excited about starting this process finally,” Thomas said. “I’m ready to work at a publishing company again with my degree.

“I may have come through the back door, but I will be leaving through the front door.” 

For more information about finishing your degree at MTSU, visit MTSU.edu/FinishNow.

— Hunter Patterson (Hunter.Patterson@mtsu.edu)