There’s a stack of papers on Christine Dunagan’s kitchen table.

The edges of the sheets are wrinkled, the folds clearly creased from Dunagan’s routine inspections. If she’s not comforting herself reading letters from her son Kyle, who is close to graduating U.S. Navy boot camp, she’s poring over University College commencement notes.

Covering the documents are cap and gown measurements, graduation preparations and rehearsal instructions for Dunagan, who will be carrying the Syracuse University flag as the 2014 commencement marshal May 11.

For Dunagan, this is a day eight years in the making. In that time, she struggled to balance part-time classes with a full-time job at an engineering company –– she was an administrative assistant by day and a student by night.

“It’s been difficult,” she said. “I’ve had my doubts, and there were times I wondered whether it would be worth it in the end. It’s taken eight years, but I’m finally there.”

Now, one month from her 50th birthday, all of Dunagan’s hard work is about to pay off.

For a while after high school, everything went according to plan: Dunagan graduated, began college classes at what is now Montana State University and was well on her way toward graduation. As she tells it, things were pretty normal.

But as with a lot of people, Dunagan said, her plans were interrupted by life. She moved from her hometown of Billings, Montana, to Houston, Texas, got married and suspended any further college plans.

“My education was halted at that point,” she said. “After a few more moves, I ended up in Syracuse and worked a retail job for a while.”

After four years of managing Franklin Covey until the store closed, Dunagan landed the administrative assistant position at Lockheed Martin, an engineering company in Liverpool, N.Y., that specializes in aerospace and defense contracts.

And then she found the company offered tuition assistance for employees that returned to finish school.

“I would have been an absolute fool not to take that chance,” Dunagan said. “I knew it was my chance to go back and finish what I started all that time ago.”

Although the major no longer exists for incoming SU students, Dunagan has been pursuing a major in Organizational Leadership throughout her college career. Despite the fact that school and work often clashed, Dunagan was never hesitant to mesh them together.

Before a meeting one day, she spoke to Mike Leone, a chief engineer and her boss, in the hallway at Lockheed Martin.

“Christine had written a paper on group dynamics in school the day before,” Leone said. “It was about how groups interact. She was talking about how we could run meetings more efficiently. She was always eager to bring what she had learned from school into work.”

Leone is one of three executives that Dunagan assists. She schedules appointments, manages reports and fills in wherever she’s needed. After 10 years at Lockheed Martin, she knows the job backward and forward.

“She’s critical to my success here,” Leone said. “She’s always filling in all over the company. She’s always on assignments outside of her department. She makes sure that everything is pulled together month after month.”

Leone said it will be a momentous occasion when Dunagan receives her degree after the work she’s done the past eight years in school. He, along with the other employees Dunagan works with, will be relieved to see her hard work pay off.

Lockheed Martin employees aren’t the only ones who will be smiling after Dunagan walks the stage, though.

When Kyle, Dunagan’s son, does get the chance to write, she said he talks about the difficulties of boot camp, whether it’s the extreme lack of sleep or rigorous conditioning routine –– but one week after Dunagan graduates, so will her son.

Jim, Dunagan’s husband, is almost as excited for that week as they are.

“It’s sad that Kyle won’t be able to be at Christine’s graduation,” Jim said. “But I know he really wants to be there. She doesn’t realize how much he looks up to her –– her approval of him is everything. I’m not sure I would say that he entered the Navy for Christine. But I know that she’ll be happy to see him graduate alongside her.”

For Dunagan and her son, graduation means more than the opportunities it will bring –– it means they’ve accomplished something. It’s a reward for their commitment.

“I wanted to do this for myself, I wanted to set an example for my son,” she said. “Just to be able to say that I’m a college graduate –– there’s something of value to that in the real world.”

Dunagan said she often felt left behind; she felt as if the rest of the world was moving while she was standing still. But graduation is a big step forward.

“I think in life, you go through what you have to in order to get where you need to be, “ Dunagan said. “I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t taken the path I took. What was supposed to happen, happened, and here I am.”

On Sunday, Dunagan will lead 55 students to their seats at commencement. She’ll stand at the podium and give a speech to other graduates almost 30 years younger than her. She’ll walk in with the SU flag and walk out with her degree.

And then, she’ll finally get some sleep.
mrmahard@syr.edu

Published on May 8, 2014 at 1:00 am