Serrano High School

Adversity can't keep Daytona State College graduates from degrees

DAYTONA BEACH -- In between transporting equipment in armored vehicles in Iraq, Army Sgt. Stephanie Serrano was in her room taking online courses from Daytona State College while mortars hit the base almost daily.

Some exploded while others were shot down before they landed, she said.

When she heard "incoming, incoming" over the speaker at her base in Baghdad and sirens sounded, she'd have to stop taking her quiz or class work, lie on the floor and cover her head.

When it was over, Internet service was down for hours and sometimes she would have to wait until midnight because of the time difference to call her professor to say she lost the quiz and ask to retake it.

The 45-year-old mother and grandmother's determination taking online classes for five months of her yearlong deployment last year and then at the Daytona Beach main campus, earned her a bachelor of applied science in supervision and management degree Monday.

Serrano was one of about 2,000 students receiving associate and bachelor's degrees at two graduation ceremonies Monday at the Ocean Center -- the largest class ever, showing a more than 20 percent increase from last spring. The college has seen more students return to school because of the poor economy in hopes of obtaining better jobs and the addition of baccalaureate degrees. Additional students who received degrees in December also were eligible to walk.

Serrano leaves today for training in California to prepare for another year of deployment in Kuwait at the end of June. She plans to take online courses from another college for her master's degree there. When she returns, she plans to take courses at the University of Central Florida toward a bachelor's in nursing -- a dream she's had since high school.

Serrano's educational road has been a long one that involved first getting her associate degree from then-Daytona Beach Community College in 2007.

Serrano, who has been in the military on active duty and reserves on and off since high school, also was in college in the 1990s but was young and raising her three children so she dropped out. She owned and operated a day care center for 10 years in Holly Hill and was a partner in a construction company for seven years, supervising and building houses.

She returned to college last year while in Iraq and made the dean's list and achieved honors during her studies to be "an inspiration to my kids." Serrano is the first one in her family, including her 10 siblings and parents, she said, to receive a college degree.

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