Michigan Mom Tucks 10-Day-Old Daughter Inside Gown While Graduating College: 'Kept Her with Me'
“I’d worked hard for this degree, and I was determined to walk with the rest of my class,” the new mom said
Ferris State University/Andrew J. Schmidt
Grace Szymchack and her daughter AnnabelleA Michigan mom walked her graduation ceremony with her newborn baby by her side.
Grace Szymchack, 24, told school officials that her baby was due to arrive after she graduated from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, on Friday, Dec. 15, but fate had other plans.
“Annabelle decided to come early on Dec. 6,” Szymchack told school officials. “But I’d worked hard for this degree, and I was determined to walk with the rest of my class.”
But the mom didn’t want to leave her little one behind, so she opted to just tuck the 10-day-old infant into her graduation robes for the ceremony.
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“My mom, the day before, said, ‘Just wear her on you, underneath your gown. No one will notice. It’ll be OK,' ” Szymchack told NBC Affiliate WOOD-TV. “So I just kept her with me.”
In a photo from the graduation ceremony, she could be seen smiling in a matching black cap and gown while her daughter, wrapped in a white blanket, slept in a black sling strapped to her chest. She said that some people didn’t even notice the baby at the ceremony, as her daughter behaved well and didn’t make a sound, per NBC Affiliate WOOD-TV.
Having her daughter there and receiving her diploma was perfect, she told school officials, as it symbolized the culmination of hard work she had put in over the past six years in juggling school, work, marriage and motherhood.
Szymchack enrolled in the Ferris State Student Success Hub in Traverse City at Northwestern Michigan College in 2019, which is a hub for remote students to still be able to receive an education off campus, to work toward obtaining her bachelor’s degree while still taking care of her family. She welcomed her daughter Isabelle last year, according to Ferris News.
“I had quite a few classes there when I started, but then COVID hit and all of a sudden they were all completely online,” she said. “I definitely found that more manageable because then I could take classes at home and also take care of my daughter.”
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As for what’s next for the mom of two, she said she was planning to become a teacher, having earned a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education.
“I love working with the littles the best … I feel like I can really make an impact there,” she told Ferris News.
Szymchack, who currently works at a local hospital teaching a preschool class, also told Fox 59 that she would consider going for her Master’s degree, but would wait for her children to get a bit older before going back to school.
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