Student Stories

Payton Hamby graduated from Shelton State with her associate degree in Nursing in May 2018 along with one of her best friends, Brooke Robertson. After graduation, Payton immediately began working at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, as a registered nurse on the cardiac unit. Even though Payton had begun her career, she and Brooke...

 

John Murray is a systems engineer at L3Harris Technologies near New York, where he has lived all his life. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics at a prestigious private Jesuit university in 2016 and wanted to pursue graduate studies in aerospace engineering, but he also wanted to begin his career. He knew online...

 

December Guzzo recently graduated with her Master of Social Work from The University of Alabama’s primarily online program. She is now using the degree to advance her work as a child forensic interviewer specialist/coordinator at the National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC), where she interviews children ages 3-19 who have experienced some type of abuse. She also interviews adults...

 

Originally from Chicago, but having spent most of his life in Alabama, Darrick Carr describes himself as a “diehard Alabama fan.” He moved to Tuscaloosa after high school in Vernon, Alabama, and began pursuing a bachelor’s degree at The University of Alabama in 1992. He was a first-generation college student, and the first of his...

 

Franky Knepp is currently earning her bachelor’s in Human Environmental Sciences all the way from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she works as a civilian HR specialist for the Army. In 2018, she transferred to The University of Alabama from a school in Alaska, where she was living before her family moved to Fort Bragg. A veteran...

 

Michael Demes is a family man and the director of sales at the Hilton Garden Inn in Boca Raton, Florida. He’s a Navy veteran and Boston-born longtime Florida resident. And now he’s also a college degree-holding certified member of The University of Alabama alumni family, after he graduated in August 2019 with his bachelor’s in Hospitality...

 

TTne Cummings visited The University of Alabama for the first time in August 2019 – to pick up her diploma at graduation and participate in commencement. While working full time as a registered nurse in Atlanta over the previous year and a half, she earned her Master of Science in Nursing with a concentration in...

 

Zach Konstanzer graduated in August 2019 from The University of Alabama with his Master of Arts in Health Studies. He’s always had an interest in health and coaching. He took four PE classes his senior year of high school and then earned his bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from Western Illinois University, where he also played...

 

Summer Kervin is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Nursing with a concentration in Family Nurse Practitioner primarily online through The University of Alabama. She’s known that she wanted to be a nurse ever since she was diagnosed with severe scoliosis and had to have major spinal surgery at age 13. Thanks to the wonderful care...

 

Born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, Sierra Smith is no stranger to challenges. In her life, she’s undergone 20 brain surgeries. Her medical condition caused her to struggle in school, and she even had to miss a month of school each year of high school. While her academic journey has not been a predictable one,...