For One Couple, Love and Devotion Includes Graduating Together

By Joselyn Yap, Cal State San Bernardino Spokesperson

Kenneth and Rebekah Brown will get the opportunity to do what they have planned on for several years: walking down the aisle.

But their walk won't be to the Wedding March. Instead it will be to Pomp and Circumstance as each receives their bachelors’ degrees from Cal State San Bernardino.
 
The Highland couple, who will celebrate their third wedding anniversary in July, will graduate together during the commencement ceremony of Cal State San Bernardino’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday, June 15. 
 
The graduation is one of the five CSUSB commencement ceremonies to be held at the university’s Coussoulis Arena on June 15 and 16, when more than 3,400 students will be eligible to participate.
 
Like many young married couples, the Browns, who met at their church, mapped out their future for college and after college, said Kenneth Brown. The 25-year-old would work to support Rebekah and himself while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration human resources management and, after graduation, go onto law school in San Diego. 
 
Rebekah, 27, would pursue a bachelor’s degree in human development-child development track and then support the family as a nanny while Kenneth was in law school.
 
But it wouldn’t be easy. In fact, when the couple mapped out their plans, Kenneth had more than enough units to be eligible to graduate in June, but Rebekah was nowhere near the number of units she needed to graduate. 
 
So over the course of three quarters, she piled on the classes, carrying an average of 20 units a quarter, and then carried a full course load in the summer sessions to amass the needed number of units to graduate with her husband.
 
“Oh my gosh, I’m so excited,” said Rebekah Brown, who admitted to being tired from all the schoolwork and final exams. “But I’m ready to be done. I received great support from Ken.”
 
Kenneth was proud of his wife, “who stuck to the plan.  She worked very hard to be able to graduate.” He added jokingly that his wife was a “zombie” at the end of the quarter.

Instead of participating in the College of Business and Public Administration graduation to receive his bachelor’s degree, Kenneth will instead walk with Rebekah at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences graduation ceremony.
 
The couple will also continue a tradition that started with his parents and her parents’ years earlier.
 
Kenneth’s parents both graduated at the same ceremony at Cal Poly Pomona, while Rebekah’s parents both graduated at the same ceremony at Brigham Young University.
 
“Our parents set examples for us,” Kenneth Brown said. “It will be nice to be able to tell our children that we went to school and graduated together. It’s a nice legacy our parents left to us for our children.”