It is something you don\u2019t see every day: A family graduating from college together. But that is exactly what is happening at Miami Dade College.<\/p>\n
Nineteen-year-old Leeyahna Lawson sits with her family in a classroom at Miami Dade College. She jokingly pretends to be the announcer on graduation day, \u201cIrving Lawson, Joycelyn Lawson.\u201d<\/p>\n
They all giggle as 47-year-old Jocelyn says, \u201cAs long as they don\u2019t state our GPA!\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lawson family is comprised of Leeyahna, Jocelyn, 21-year-old Jovi-Anna, and 54-year-old Irving Lawson.<\/p>\n
The Lawsons also have another daughter who is graduating from 8th grade this year and has intentions of doing dual enrollment this upcoming school year.<\/p>\n
But for Leeyahna and Jocelyn, college was always part of the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was introduced to dual enrollment by my mom,\u201d says Leeyahna. Jocelyn said with a laugh, \u201cOf course!\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Lawson family laughs, Jocelyn continues, \u201cI was really excited because I was like, ‘Oh my, oh my gosh, I was going to be able to take college classes while in high school,’ and it made me think, ‘I would be ahead of the game,’ and I was really happy and excited to know that because, I think that education is a very important asset and thing to have. And it will bring you really far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jamaican family immigrated in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came to America, and we have the concept, as with the American dream,” Irving said. “But when we came, we recognized that there needs to be something more than us dreaming. We have to put some action to that dream, and we thought that it would be best for us to go back to school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Irving and Jocelyn did.<\/p>\n
They became students at Miami-Dade College, with Irving studying cybersecurity and Jocelyn studying nursing with Jovi-Anna. \u201cI say you know what, Jo-Jo, let\u2019s do this,\u201d says Jocelyn.<\/p>\n
With a smile, Jocelyn continues, \u201cSo she has been helping me. She has been a tool of strength, with some of the subject areas that we do in nursing, and I\u2019m very grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Afternoons in their house look a little different than most, \u201cWell, I will say that we learn a lot from each other, especially because we’re doing different subjects,\u201d Leeyahna said. \u201cSo there are times where maybe there is like a Math question or an English question. My mom is the English wiz in our family. Me and my dad were the mathematicians, so we help each other in different areas that, you know, maybe we didn’t understand this in a class. So, we ask each other questions, and we study together.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the girls said they have had a different college experience from their peers, but one they wouldn\u2019t want to change for the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I see them, I\u2019ll go, and I want to hug them and everything,” Jocelyn said. “My oldest daughter knows she was like, \u2018Oh, mom.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot all the time!\u201d Jovi-Anna said. \u201cNot all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now, these Lawson parents will become first-generation college graduates alongside their daughters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are very proud, very, very proud, and it\u2019s as exciting for them as it\u2019s exciting for us,\u201d Jovi-Anna said. \u201cThis is like a memory that we will hold forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Leeyahna said. \u201cI never would have expected in all my days that I would be graduating with my parents. That\u2019s awesome. I am going to tell my kids, my grandkids, it\u2019s going to be generational.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lawson family asked NBC6 if they could share a daily devotional that they practice in their home.<\/p>\n
Jocelyn leads them into song.<\/p>\n
The family of faith shares some sayings they live by, \u201cLike Philippians 4:13,\u201d shares Irving, who is a pastor in Homestead.<\/p>\n
The family said together, \u201cWe can do all things through Christ, you strengthen me,” and they said it\u2019s through their faith and strength in each other that all things and celebrations are possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the clich\u00e9 is true,\u201d Leeyahna shares. \u201cTeamwork does make the dream work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is something you don\u2019t see every day: A family graduating from college together. But that is exactly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,4287,125,124],"class_list":["post-239998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-dade-college","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}