Graduate Knows All About Carrying a Full Load

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 17, 2008

BALTIMORE, May 16 -- There is no easy explanation for how Sylvia Spady-Viney managed to get her master's degree Friday from the University of Maryland's school of social work.

She's 58, a full-time Prince George's County social worker, full-time mother to two of her grandchildren -- one of whom has cerebral palsy -- and, for the past three years, a full-time student in Baltimore. Add up the hours commuting, studying, working and parenting, and that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for such basic needs as sleeping and eating.

"When I think about it, I even astonish myself," said Spady-Viney, who gave most of the credit to others but acknowledged that her graduation had the markings of a miracle.

"I just feel like God has been a real presence in my life and the life of my kids," she said.

Because of her work and parenting needs, Spady-Viney, who lives in Capitol Heights, compacted her entire class schedule into one day of the week. This year, the classes were on Monday, and she would spend 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in class, not getting home until 9:30 p.m. most school nights. A neighbor helped her take the grandchildren off the school bus and put them to bed on those days, she said.

She never had any doubts that she would make it, she said Friday. She grew up in a housing project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and in 11th grade met a woman who did social work. From then on she believed she ought to help others solve their problems.

After three decades doing social work, she is now with the Child and Family Services Division in Prince George's, where she helps families with children who are at risk for out-of-home placement.

"Sometimes it doesn't work, and sometimes I have to do removals," she said. "But primarily I work towards keeping families together. . . . It's a great job. I love it."

But there was one thing she was missing: a graduate degree. She graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash., in 1978, 30 days before having her third child. She said she wasn't able to attend the graduation ceremony then, because she was too pregnant to drive and wasn't able to find anyone to take her.

Three years ago, she saw her opportunity. The Maryland Department of Human Resources sponsored a program that would pay 85 percent of her tuition, and the Maryland Higher Education Commission covered the rest. The major expenses Spady-Viney had to cover out of pocket were gas and parking.

But she had plenty besides money to worry about. Spady-Viney's older sister, Roberta L. Ramsey, marveled at her sibling's work ethic. One conversation between the two went like this, she said:

Spady-Viney: "I have 32 chapters to read."

Ramsey: "How are you going to do that?"

Spady-Viney: "I don't know."

At that point, "I just got out of her way, and she did it, and when I asked her how it went, she'd say, 'I got an A-plus,' " Ramsey said. "She's an inspiration." (Spady-Viney chuckled at her sister's story: "It wasn't no 32 chapters. It probably was five or six chapters that I had to read that night," she said.)

Spady-Viney, nicknamed "Miss Sylvia," was an inspiration to her fellow students, partly because of her age and experience.

"It was fun, you know. I'd been working in the field for so long, I think I added a lot to the classes," she said. "I think a lot of the students looked at me as someone who was knowledgeable."

She also did two years of field work in Prince George's in addition to her job, working last year with mothers of drug-addicted newborns. This year, she worked with teenagers, many of them disabled, and their families.

For all of her hard work and self-confidence, the sheer joy of graduating stopped her cold. Wearing a black robe and a black-and-gold hood she borrowed from a friend, she cried off and on from the moment she sat down with almost 400 other students from the school of social work, waiting for her name to be called. Her grandchildren Laylah, 8, and Eric, 6, as well as her daughter, her sister and a co-worker cheered her on.

"Me and one of my co-workers who was in the same program, we kept going, 'We're not going to cry,' and then we started crying," Spady-Viney said. "I didn't realize it was going to affect me the way it did. It's just a really good feeling."

The speeches washed over her. Later that afternoon, she couldn't remember a thing anyone had said, only going up to the stage and having the hood draped around her neck.

Had she ever doubted she could make it?

"No," she said. "Having my two little grandkids, having custody of them, that's been a real driving force in my life." And she added a bit of advice for the youngsters.

"If this old lady can do it, you can do anything."