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MC's first doctorate recipient a teacher from start | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com
The moment is best captured by a father's expression of pride in his daughter.
"It gives me chills," Joseph Sarpy said recently.
He was recalling the moment he watched his daughter, Kathleen Grigsby, walk across the stage of A. E. Wood Coliseum on Aug. 6 as Mississippi College's first doctoral graduate.
There was a standing ovation and flashing cameras. Despite the crowd, he said, "it was like there was only one person there. Kathleen was the only person we saw."
Sarpy, who is deaf, spoke through an interpreter over the speakerphone with Grigsby beaming as she listened in her office at Marshall Elementary in Jackson, where she is the new principal.
"I wanted to shout out, 'That's my daughter,' " Sarpy continued. "I was so elated and excited about her accomplishments."
Grigsby said she, too, is elated about her recent graduation and her first year as a principal.
That success did not come easily. "People, they see me now and they see my glory," she said, "but they don't know my story."
She was born in Natchitoches, La., in 1977, the same year her father won a Tony award as a member of the National Theatre for the Deaf. He was the group's first black actor.
Joe and Carol Sarpy, who is from Australia, are both deaf. At home and when running errands, their daughter answered the phone and interpreted for her parents.
The family experienced financial ups and downs, Grigsby said.
She recalled her father riding a bicycle to and from his job at the School for the Deaf because the family had no car. They sometimes had to sleep on mattresses on the floor of their grandparents' home when her parents were unable to find jobs. Sometimes they received public assistance.
"For Christmas, I remember people coming to the house to donate bags of rice, flour, just the main cooking things," she said.
The family at one point moved from Louisiana to Connecticut. They moved to Australia in the 1980s. At 13, she and her little sister returned to the United States and lived with their grandparents in Louisiana for about a year until their parents were able to return.
Her home life began shaping her into a teacher.
Grigsby taught sign language to her younger sister, who also was born hearing. She taught her parents things happening in the hearing world that were inaccessible to the deaf, such as slang.
"I was always placed in a position where I was teaching, but never thought about teaching as a career," Grigsby said.
When Grigsby was 8, her second-grade teacher noticed she was struggling with hearing sounds and putting those sounds into words on paper. She was also having trouble following directions.
The teacher sent a letter home to the Sarpys suggesting they have her hearing tested. She needed hearing aids on both ears.
Her audiologist wondered how she could have gone so long unable to fully hear, Grigsby said. That experience left her with a lesson: "Do not give up on students."
"That could have been me," Grigsby said. "That teacher could have just said, 'OK, she's a problem child. She's not listening. She's not hearing.' And that would have impacted my life."
As a freshman at the University of Mississippi, she was studying physical therapy and planning to go to medical school but was not excelling in her classes. She was dating Kenneth Grigsby, who came from a family of educators. He and his mother helped his future wife realize her calling.
Grigsby said she would love to be an educator but was not sure she would make enough money, Kenneth Grigsby said. They told her there are different avenues to make money in education, "but at the end of the day you want to do something that you feel is fulfilling and that you're obviously good at," he said.
"Sure enough, when I changed my major it was like, I can't even describe it," Kathleen Grigsby said. "I was in my zone. That was where I was supposed to be."
Despite changing her major, she graduated in four years, began working as a teacher and went on to complete a master's degree. Kathleen Grigsby has been a teacher, a literacy coach and an assistant principal in Jackson Public Schools. She was a two-time teacher of the year at Woodville Heights Elementary.
When she started her doctoral classes in January 2008, Kathleen Grigsby also was working full time as an educator, and Kenneth Grisby, whom she married, was working at a Jackson law firm. They also had a daughter, Taylor.
The Grigsbys had two cars and commuted separately from Madison until an obstacle came up.
"My engine had gone out in my car," Kenneth Grigsby said. "We did not want to buy another car and incur that expense, particularly with a new child and with Kathleen going to school."
But it was important that his wife finish school, Kenneth Grigsby said. They rearranged their schedules: He left work early to take his wife to class, picked up Taylor in Madison, made sure Taylor had a bath and food, and went to get his wife from class in Clinton.
He worked late nights and on weekends to make up his time away from the office.
In Mississippi College's doctorate of education program, attending classes is mandatory and there are no online options, said Ruthie Stevenson, coordinator of the doctoral program in educational leadership.
Stevenson said she knew things weren't easy for Kathleen Grigsby, but Grigsby never used anything in her personal life as an excuse. She took the lead on projects and had no patience for slackers.
"She is an awesome person, and I know the fact that she is a first-year principal is just the beginning for her," Stevenson said. "I know that she is going to go so much further and she has shown that she has the ability and she has shown that she has the drive to accomplish whatever she wants to accomplish."
For Kathleen Grigsby, her experiences and successes are things to share with her students. She can advise them and stand as proof that they shouldn't use their backgrounds or any physical deficits as an excuse.
"And that sounds so cliched, but it's true," Kathleen Grigsby said. "If I made it, you can do it, too."
The moment is best captured by a father's expression of pride in his daughter.
"It gives me chills," Joseph Sarpy said recently.
He was recalling the moment he watched his daughter, Kathleen Grigsby, walk across the stage of A. E. Wood Coliseum on Aug. 6 as Mississippi College's first doctoral graduate.
There was a standing ovation and flashing cameras. Despite the crowd, he said, "it was like there was only one person there. Kathleen was the only person we saw."
Sarpy, who is deaf, spoke through an interpreter over the speakerphone with Grigsby beaming as she listened in her office at Marshall Elementary in Jackson, where she is the new principal.
"I wanted to shout out, 'That's my daughter,' " Sarpy continued. "I was so elated and excited about her accomplishments."
Grigsby said she, too, is elated about her recent graduation and her first year as a principal.
That success did not come easily. "People, they see me now and they see my glory," she said, "but they don't know my story."
She was born in Natchitoches, La., in 1977, the same year her father won a Tony award as a member of the National Theatre for the Deaf. He was the group's first black actor.
Joe and Carol Sarpy, who is from Australia, are both deaf. At home and when running errands, their daughter answered the phone and interpreted for her parents.
The family experienced financial ups and downs, Grigsby said.
She recalled her father riding a bicycle to and from his job at the School for the Deaf because the family had no car. They sometimes had to sleep on mattresses on the floor of their grandparents' home when her parents were unable to find jobs. Sometimes they received public assistance.
"For Christmas, I remember people coming to the house to donate bags of rice, flour, just the main cooking things," she said.
The family at one point moved from Louisiana to Connecticut. They moved to Australia in the 1980s. At 13, she and her little sister returned to the United States and lived with their grandparents in Louisiana for about a year until their parents were able to return.
Her home life began shaping her into a teacher.
Grigsby taught sign language to her younger sister, who also was born hearing. She taught her parents things happening in the hearing world that were inaccessible to the deaf, such as slang.
"I was always placed in a position where I was teaching, but never thought about teaching as a career," Grigsby said.
When Grigsby was 8, her second-grade teacher noticed she was struggling with hearing sounds and putting those sounds into words on paper. She was also having trouble following directions.
The teacher sent a letter home to the Sarpys suggesting they have her hearing tested. She needed hearing aids on both ears.
Her audiologist wondered how she could have gone so long unable to fully hear, Grigsby said. That experience left her with a lesson: "Do not give up on students."
"That could have been me," Grigsby said. "That teacher could have just said, 'OK, she's a problem child. She's not listening. She's not hearing.' And that would have impacted my life."
As a freshman at the University of Mississippi, she was studying physical therapy and planning to go to medical school but was not excelling in her classes. She was dating Kenneth Grigsby, who came from a family of educators. He and his mother helped his future wife realize her calling.
Grigsby said she would love to be an educator but was not sure she would make enough money, Kenneth Grigsby said. They told her there are different avenues to make money in education, "but at the end of the day you want to do something that you feel is fulfilling and that you're obviously good at," he said.
"Sure enough, when I changed my major it was like, I can't even describe it," Kathleen Grigsby said. "I was in my zone. That was where I was supposed to be."
Despite changing her major, she graduated in four years, began working as a teacher and went on to complete a master's degree. Kathleen Grigsby has been a teacher, a literacy coach and an assistant principal in Jackson Public Schools. She was a two-time teacher of the year at Woodville Heights Elementary.
When she started her doctoral classes in January 2008, Kathleen Grigsby also was working full time as an educator, and Kenneth Grisby, whom she married, was working at a Jackson law firm. They also had a daughter, Taylor.
The Grigsbys had two cars and commuted separately from Madison until an obstacle came up.
"My engine had gone out in my car," Kenneth Grigsby said. "We did not want to buy another car and incur that expense, particularly with a new child and with Kathleen going to school."
But it was important that his wife finish school, Kenneth Grigsby said. They rearranged their schedules: He left work early to take his wife to class, picked up Taylor in Madison, made sure Taylor had a bath and food, and went to get his wife from class in Clinton.
He worked late nights and on weekends to make up his time away from the office.
In Mississippi College's doctorate of education program, attending classes is mandatory and there are no online options, said Ruthie Stevenson, coordinator of the doctoral program in educational leadership.
Stevenson said she knew things weren't easy for Kathleen Grigsby, but Grigsby never used anything in her personal life as an excuse. She took the lead on projects and had no patience for slackers.
"She is an awesome person, and I know the fact that she is a first-year principal is just the beginning for her," Stevenson said. "I know that she is going to go so much further and she has shown that she has the ability and she has shown that she has the drive to accomplish whatever she wants to accomplish."
For Kathleen Grigsby, her experiences and successes are things to share with her students. She can advise them and stand as proof that they shouldn't use their backgrounds or any physical deficits as an excuse.
"And that sounds so cliched, but it's true," Kathleen Grigsby said. "If I made it, you can do it, too."