When Hunt graduated from high school in 1950, she wanted to become a teacher; but her father’s death five years earlier had left her family struggling financially. Later, her own challenges as a single mother would further delay her dreams of college. 

“I have not exactly had an easy life,” Hunt recalled. “I was married when I was 21, had five children very quickly; and by the time I was 27, my husband deserted me with a baby two weeks old.”  

Over the years, Hunt would go on to remarry and raise two more children. To her testament, all seven have earned college degrees. Now it is her turn. 

Hunt makes returning to the classroom after a half-century look easy. With an impressive 3.8 GPA, she is on track to graduate near the head of her class in December of 2006. Donning her cap and gown will be even sweeter, since her granddaughter, Nikeiva Davis, an education major at the Dothan Campus, is scheduled to graduate at the same time.  

The grandmother and granddaughter have taken several classes together; and Davis admits she often turns to her grandmother for advice on papers and other projects.  

“She is a role model,” Davis said, proudly. “She pushes me to do my best. I started a semester before her, and we’ll be graduating together. What she has, I try to attain.” 

The pair must lean on each other even more this semester as Davis’s mother, Geraldine, serves in Iraq with the Army National Guard. The elder Davis, also a TROY student, has put her education on hold during her deployment.