Michael Nicolas’ graduation from Colorado State University this weekend marks the end of a lonely journey that began when his Bulgarian mother sold her car to send him to America when he was 16.
For Martha Reyes, the daughter of migrant workers, earning a degree from Metropolitan State College of Denver erases any lingering fear that she was destined to spend her life picking onions.
And for Rhonda Schantz, who graduated from Morgan Community College, her nursing degree signifies her strength – she persevered through the deaths of three family members within about two weeks.
Among the thousands of college students receiving diplomas in Colorado this weekend are those whose paths to the graduation stage were anything but typical.
At Metro State, Steffany Rittle – whose parents were told at her birth that a spinal cord defect called spina bifida would cause such severe learning disabilities she would never go to college – earned a degree in behavioral sciences.
At Western State College’s graduation last week, two longtime friends who earned their degrees 46 years ago – Korean War veterans William Bahn and Rodney Smith – came back to pick them up.
And at the Colorado School of Mines, the father of petroleum engineering graduate Devin Mills listened via cellphone from Afghanistan as his wife described their son walking across the stage.
Man on a mission
Nicolas, who grew up in impoverished Bulgaria, is the only one in his family with American citizenship – his parents planned it that way.
Nicolas, 22, was born in New York, where his father traveled as a jewelry salesman.
After Nicolas’ father died, his mother struggled to raise him and his brother on her own. When Nicolas was 16, she sold her 1980s model BMW to buy him a one-way ticket to Colorado to live with a host family.
“I just knew what I was carrying on my back – it wasn’t just me going up, it was me taking my whole family with me,” he said.
Nicolas hasn’t seen his mom and brother in five years, since the summer after he graduated from Englewood High School.He has supported himself by doing landscaping and working at a fast-food restaurant.
Nicolas’ final goal – after a trip home this summer and graduate school in landscape architecture at the University of Colorado at Denver next year – is to financially support his family and bring them to Colorado.
“Until I see my family out here and see them in my shoes and they are happy, that’s when my mission will be done,” he said.
Defying cultural norms
Reyes quit school in fifth grade after her parents left Mexico to work the fields in Colorado, leaving her behind with her grandparents.
Her parents eventually brought her to Colorado, where Reyes started seventh-grade not knowing English and spent summers picking vegetables.
She planned to quit school as soon as she turned 16.
“But by that time, I figured out it was important for me to at least have a high school degree to get out of the fields,” she said.
Reyes never considered college until she met Vidala Leal, a recruiter for Metro State’s College Assistance Migrant Program. Convincing her parents she should go was harder.
“In our culture, a woman never leaves the house unless it’s for marriage,” Reyes said.
Her parents conceded after Leal offered to let Reyes live with her in Denver and helped her get financial aid. She lost her parents’ support in her sophomore year when she got pregnant.
Reyes’ parents had a change of heart after her baby, Jennifer, was born, and now Reyes’ two younger sisters, Rosa and Celia, also attend Metro State.
Reyes, 24, said it hasn’t sunken in yet that she will graduate Sunday.
“It’s like I can’t believe it,” she said. “I’ve done so much that I thought I would never be able to achieve.”
Fighting through grief
The worst two weeks of Schantz’s life started with the death of her great-grandfather.
Days later, the 22-year-old Morgan Community College student’s stepfather, the only dad she had ever known, was found dead of a massive stroke in his trailer home.
And a week after that, Schantz’s mother killed herself. Depressed by the deaths of her grandfather and the man she had loved for 25 years, she overdosed on medication for her bipolar disorder, Schantz said.
Through the trio of funerals, and sadness that hung so heavy it was hard to concentrate, Schantz dug deep to find the strength to stick with school.
She hung in there for her mom.
“She raised me as a single parent for a lot of years,” Schantz said. “I kind of beat the odds. I didn’t become a teen parent. I went to college. I wanted to make her proud of something. It’s hard that she’s not going to be there to see it.”
Schantz paid for college through a scholarship and financial aid, and by working during summer and winter breaks at Wal-Mart.
Her graduation was bittersweet, tempered by photographs that should have included three more faces.
“It’s a milestone for me so I’m excited about that, but it’s just hard,” she said. “I just felt like I worked too hard to quit where I was.”
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
