Mother excels while keeping promise

May 10—HIGH POINT — Erica Andrews, a single mother of two, will wear a sash in memory of a high school friend as she receives her master's degree today.

After overcoming health issues and family challenges, Andrews is keeping a promise she made while a high school senior at the funeral of her 17-year-old friend Tara Michael Savage. Savage died Sept. 18, 1998, after her 1998 Nissan was struck on the driver's side by a car headed south on Trinity Road near Trinity High School.

Andrews recalled her friend was a fellow Christian with a bubbly, outgoing personality that would "light up a room" but was not feeling well when driving home the afternoon of the wreck.

"When I went to her funeral, I promised her I would do everything she couldn't," Andrews said. "Even on days I didn't feel like it, I would do it anyway."

Knowing she wanted to work with children and become a social worker, Andrews had started her career path right after high school that year.

"I got one semester under my belt at UNC-G and then my mom got really sick," Andrews said. "I dropped out and took my mom to the beach to see if that would help with everything that was going on."

As the years passed, Andrews became more convinced she wanted to work as a therapist for children. She was raising two daughters of her own when she finally took the advice of her older sister, Tara Coenen, who moved to Germany in 2012 as a maternal/child nurse serving young families on a large U.S. Air Force base.

Coenen, who Andrews calls "my best friend who is my sister," said she kept encouraging Andrews to go back to complete her college degree.

"Being over here away from the States, I'm trying to be her biggest cheerleader," Coenen said. "She's such an inspiration."

Andrews said she has always befriended underdogs and helped those in need but hesitated to go back for her college degree to get credentials for that career path.

"I kept telling myself, 'I don't think I can,' then I started thinking about Tara" and that high school promise, she said.

Another motivator for Andrews' return to UNC-G was the passing of her grandfather, Donald Cruthis, who died of cancer in January 2016.

"He had always believed in me, like my sister believes in me," Andrews said. "If they would not have, I don't know if I would have believed in myself enough."

Andrews was accepted into the UNCG social work program in 2018.

While working an internship with Randolph County's Child Protective Services, she broke her leg.

"I was at my client's home and I had already done five visits that day," Andrews said. "I was on the last step and when I went to step down, I turned my ankle and broke my tibia and fibula in three different places."

Despite that, Andrews graduated magna cum laude with her bachelor's degree on May 8, 2020. Realizing she wasn't getting any younger, Andrews applied for and was accepted into UNCG and A&T State University's Joint Master of Social Work Advanced Standing program.

"Within five days of graduating with my bacheIor's, we started Advanced Standing. I had a broken leg and a pandemic," Andrews said with a laugh.

Over the past year, she completed the equivalent of two years of study and also worked as a therapist with UNCG's Beyond Academics, a program for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities who are interested in furthering their education. At the same time, she was homeschooling her two daughters, 16-year-old MacKenzie and 6-year-old Serenity. The pandemic had prompted schools to close in-person classes at the same time Andrews was hobbling around trying to keep up with her masters' classes.

Mackenzie said Andrews has been a great role model.

"When she works, she works hard," MacKenzie said. "She does her papers to the best of her abilities. She doesn't do it just to pass. She excels at everything she does, and I'm very proud of her. She really does inspire me."

As she created her memory sash, Andrews selected green because it was her late friend's favorite color, and she included the names of her grandfathers. Her bedazzled cap features her daughters' names, her sister's initials and her own adaptation of a Bible verse, from Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ ... and I did."

Andrews credits her sister for giving her the boost to reach for her goals.

"Had she not pushed and pushed me, I might not have gone back because I didn't think I was smart enough for it," Andrews said. "Here I am with straight As the entire time and in four honor societies. So I proved a little something to myself."

cingram@hpenews.com — 336-888-3534 — @HPEcinde