Thanks, Mom! UC Student Cites Mother for Inspiration in Drive to Become First College Grad in Family

Becoming the first member of his family to earn a bachelor’s degree entailed a lot of hard work for Curtis Robinson. But it was nothing, he feels, compared to the effort his mother made to make sure he would be in position to get his degree.

"Education was everything," says Curtis, who will be celebrating the big event on Dec. 13, when UC hosts its December Commencement Ceremony at 10 a.m. "My mom always drilled into my head that education was No. 1. I played three sports in high school, and anytime my grades slipped, I’d have to take a couple of weeks off. She always told me that education came first."

Curtis’ mom, Garnet Robinson, is among a group of upwards of 20 family members and friends who will be in attendance applauding Curtis at UC’s Commencement.

"It’s an honor to be the first one in my family to graduate," Curtis says. "It seems like everyone was almost waiting on me to do it. I felt some pressure, really. You couldn’t avoid it. It felt like they were looking to me as the only one who had that chance, so I was like, "I’ve got to finish.’ "

That’s not to imply, though, that school wasn’t something that Curtis enjoyed, or did well at.

A member of the first class to ever graduate through Shroder High School, a paideia-based school developed in the Cincinnati Public School system, Curtis finished second overall in his high school class.

He has attended UC on a Cincinnati Pride grant, a program established in 2004 that provides full tuition and a book allowance to qualifying graduates of Cincinnati Public Schools.

"I saw it as my chance to prove everyone right," says Curtis, "everyone who had said I was going to make it."

At UC, he has been a diligent and serious student.

"He was one of the hardest working young men I’ve had in my classes," says UC Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Sue Bourke. "He’s never missed a day of class and he always has gone above and beyond. (His motivation) was always about his mom, and the fact she worked so hard for him, and kept him on the straight and narrow."

Curtis’ mom was willing to work multiple jobs to provide for her family as a single mom. In fact, Curtis says she was contemplating taking on a third job just so he could attend parochial high school at Purcell Marian, but then Shroder – where he was attending junior high – kept moving closer and closer to providing a full high school curriculum in a college prep environment.

Outside of school, the family lived in Kennedy Heights, a part of town where some kids were being lured into the street life perils of the drug culture.

He saw childhood friends being drawn into trouble at a nearby apartment complex where there was frequent crime.

"It was hard. You could get sucked up into that lifestyle," Curtis says. But, just like school, his mom’s influence kept him headed in a positive direction.

"I was too worried about what my mom would do to me to get mixed up in that stuff," he says. "At the end of the day, I have to go home. You’ve got to sleep somewhere. If I didn’t fit in (on the street), I didn’t fit in. She had that type of effect."

At UC, Curtis started out as a business major.

"But that really wasn’t for me," he says. "I did not want to come in undeclared, but I didn’t enjoy what I was learning in business. When I decided to switch, I took a couple of criminal justice classes and I loved them. It’s interesting to learn about law and the legal system and how things work."

That will now be Curtis Robinson’s future. He may start out working as a case worker at a federal prison in Georgia where his aunt is on the staff. Eventually, though, his goal is to become a federal agent.

First, though, will come one of the most memorable days of his life – the day they call his name (and his family’s last name) as a college graduate.