FVSU senior balanced school, work with parenthood

Shacandice Thomas, who goes by Candy, has plenty on her plate without going to school, but now she’s graduating from Fort Valley State University.

The 30-year-old mother of four said she’s cried “so many nights” because of challenges balancing parenthood with her studies, but she knows she has to be a role model for her children — 4-year-old Caleb, 6-year-old Christian, 9-year-old stepson Jukorin and 12-year-old Jayden.

“So I’m to the point where I can’t give up because they need to see that,” she said of sticking with her education.

Thomas worked at Longhorn Steakhouse for more than three years while she was at FVSU, dropping from full-time employment only during the final semester of her bachelor’s degree in education. She was able to do that thanks to an agreement with her husband, Christopher Thomas.

“My husband pretty much supports me,” she said. “He works two jobs.”

Going back to school after a few years away wasn’t easy for Thomas, due partly to all the changes in the modern classroom. Even though she wasn’t out of school that long, personal computers, tablets and smartphones weren’t a part of school life when she was a student at Perry High School.

“The whole classroom setting, it was hard trying to fit in with other students,” she said. “I made a couple friends.”

Thomas described her parents as her “backbone” and said she was also inspired to finish for her father, Jerry Wright, who completed three years at FVSU. Her mother, Benita Wright, didn’t go to college and said Thomas was “determined” to get her degree.

“I think she is a very strong person because she’s doing something I would’ve liked to have done and didn’t,” Benita Wright said.

Thomas plans to be an elementary school teacher, a role that her mother says fits her because she loves children.

“So I think she’s going to put her all into being a teacher,” Wright said.

Beyond that, Thomas isn’t done with her own education yet.

“My goal is to have my own classroom for five years, and then I want to be a principal.”

This story was originally published May 7, 2016 at 8:53 AM with the headline "FVSU senior balanced school, work with parenthood."