Class of 2020 celebrates success

The University of District of Columbia’s class of 2020 shares not only the same graduation date, but a determination that has allowed them to beat the odds.

“My journey started in 1995, I came to UDC straight out of high school. I had to stop because I had a family and I couldn’t manage raising children and going to school, so I stopped going for a while, so it’s a pretty huge gap,” elementary education major Krystal Seabron said.

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Over the years Seabron said that she tried online school but it didn’t work for her.

“I tried to do school online at the University of Maryland, but I needed a face-to-face interaction, so it didn’t work, ” Seabron, a D.C. native, said.

In 2016, she returned to the university and was delighted when she achieved a longtime dream, being named  Miss Firebird in 2019/2020.

“Last year I knew that this would be my senior year and I always wanted to be Miss Firebird because I was into the athletic department and Miss Firebird always represents the athletic department. I wasn’t able to play any sport but I always attended soccer and basketball games, so I took my chance and I ran for Miss Firebird and I got it,” Seabron said.

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She is grateful for the unique opportunities she has had at the university.

“I love UDC. I was 40 coming back and still I was able to join the organization I wanted. I was able to interact with students without feeling different because I was older. I had an active virtual life at UDC, and I was able to be Miss Firebird and represent UDC across Illinois and Maryland and was able to be the face of UDC even though I am not a typical student with the traditional age. I don’t think I would’ve had all those opportunities in any other university other than UDC, so I will always love UDC for being able to have all those opportunities,” Seabron said.

The make up of the university’s student body was also an attraction for psychology major  Bolalne Akinola.

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“Seeing the students at UDC coming from Africa really encouraged me to go back to school, but I didn’t put it in consideration then, so what I did was that I stayed for two more years and I really suffered until I decided to go back to school,” said Akinola, who came the the U.S. in 2011.

Akinola overcame major apprehensions about becoming a student. “ I thought no one would understand me, no one would listen to me because of my accent but I was so determined, and I thought since I made it in Nigeria, I can still make it in the United States,” she said.

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She chose her favorite subject, psychology, which had attracted her many years before.

“Psychology was something that I wanted to do back in Nigeria because I have dealt with prisoners and traumatized ones before,” Akinola explained. But like Seabron, she had to juggle family life and her studies.

“I had three kids when I started and am married, and I became pregnant with my fourth child along the way,” Akinola said.

But she was determined to beat all the odds by enrolling in the university while mothering a newborn baby.

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Meanwhile, like her fellow graduates, administration of justice major Dakota Crews had to overcome significant challenges to earn her degree.

“I lost my great grandmother in 2017. I had a surgery for my last pregnancy and I came back three weeks later to knock things off,” she said. 

But Crews was fueled by a cause bigger than herself.

“I grew up in Southeast D.C. so I have seen a lot of crimes when I was younger. I had an idea that I wanted to be a cop and I wanted to protect my community and serve the people of my community and make everything safe, so when I got an AA in law enforcement from the community college, I didn’t want to stop there. I went to get a bachelor in administration of justice because instead of being a cop I would be their boss,”  she explained.

And Crews is determined to continue what she started. “Now I am taking everything I learned at UDC to grad school, all the knowledge and everything that counts for it.”