‘Mama, I made it.’ Florida Memorial University celebrates graduation and being an HBCU
Alegina Lora recalls that when her oldest daughter learned about college, she asked a lot of questions.
“She would say, ‘Mommy why didn’t you finish school?’” Lora said of Aleya, who is now 12. “And I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t know. I should go back. And she would say, ‘Yes, Mommy, you should.’ ”
And so she did.
Encouraged to set an example for Aleya and her two other kids, 6-year-old Kielah and 3-year-old Josiah, Lora enrolled at Florida Memorial University in the spring of 2020. She was 36 at the time.
On Saturday morning, she graduated magna cum laude with her bachelor’s in secondary social science education. Because she could afford it, and because she felt at home as an Afrolatina of Dominican descent, Lora enrolled at the only historically Black college or university in South Florida.
“It feels amazing.,” she said “I’m on cloud nine.”
FMU, a private institution with nearly 1,000 students, held a commencement ceremony over the weekend to award about 200 graduate and undergraduate degrees.
Set in the Clock Tower Pavilion on the Miami Gardens campus, the outdoor event offered folding white chairs for the about 1,500 relatives and friends who sat over the green lawn among trees. But they weren’t always used. A live band played, getting most of the people out of their seats to dance and sing.
The celebration comes after a challenging year for FMU, which has fought since last summer to get its accreditation agency to remove the school from probation. In late April, the university announced it will likely be upgraded from probation to good standing come June.
‘You don’t need a big campus’
For Lora, a full-time mother, teacher, student and wife, turning the tassel on her cap means the end to about two years of major juggling.
During her time at FMU, her schedule started with dropping her kids off at school and day care. She worked. Then she picked up her three little ones to take them to extracurricular activities, especially Aleya’s track practice, where she balanced both cheering her on and finishing her own homework.
She finished most of her days at another classroom, taking evening courses that often spanned two to three hours. But thanks to FMU’s tight-knit community, Lora leaned on others to watch her children if she needed to study.
“When they saw me some running around with the kids, some people offered to watch them,” Lora said. “They would say, ‘We’ll take the kids, just pick them up when you’re done at the library or whatever.’”
Saturday’s keynote speaker was actor and comedian Joe Torry, who graduated from an HBCU, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He highlighted that solidarity that makes FMU and other HBCUs special.
“You don’t need to be in a big campus,” Torry said. “I had scholarships to big campuses in Missouri and all of these things, and people asked, ‘Why are you going to Lincoln?’
“Because they know my name. Because I know their name,” he said he told them. “Because they care about me.”
Torry also said Lincoln helped him find his craft, and now he uses what he learned to inspire others through speeches like Saturday’s.
“Mama, I made it,” he said.
Marie Josette Toussaint was a proud mother at the ceremony.
Her daughter, Ruth Lucette Belotte, bought her an outfit because she wanted the family to wear coordinated colors for photos. Lucette Belotte, 22, graduated with a bachelor’s in business administration on Saturday.
Her daughter’s milestone felt like one for Toussaint, too. She worked as a janitor at FMU from 1993 to 1997 and never graduated from college.
“I’m so happy,” Toussaint said.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the age in which she started at Florida Memorial University in 2020. She was 36 not 38.
This story was originally published May 14, 2022 at 5:15 PM.
