PEOPLE PROFILE: Mother, like daughter, earns degree

By Caitlin Murray<br><a href="mailto:murrayc@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Caitlin</a>
Greater Niagara Newspapers

May 24, 2008 12:15 am

— For Margaret Minderman, walking across the stage at Niagara County Community College to get her degree was a special moment, but a rushed one. She had to escape from her graduation early to get to another important commencement ceremony: Her daughter’s.
Minderman managed to get to the Canisius College commencement in time to watch her youngest daughter, Emily, get her degree — a moment, she said trumped her own accomplishment.
“I was the first one in line to get my degree, so I exited stage left and went to see my daughter graduate,” Minderman said. “It was fabulous, maybe more thrilling for me to see my daughter reach that stage in her life.”
Graduating from college along with her daughter wasn’t something Minderman had planned. She had already graduated from Canisius College in 1973 and had worked as cancer research scientist at Roswell Park for 24 years. But after she developed a chemical allergy, she was forced to leave the profession.
Instead of letting it get her down, she used it as a chance to open her life up to new opportunities, she said.
“Sometimes you have to go with the changes in your life instead of taking it as a negative thing,” Minderman said. “Turn it into a positive — that’s what I try to do.”
With fond memories of cooking with her mother and grandmother as a child and a love for baking, she decided to enroll in NCCC’s culinary arts and pastry arts programs.
That meant Minderman, a mother and grandmother, would be sharing classrooms with students the same age as her youngest children.
“I initially wondered, would I be able to keep up with them? Over the course of my studies, it became more, ‘Can they keep up with me?’ ” Minderman laughed.
She went on to become president of Phi Theta Kappa, an honors society, and president of the students’ Culinary Arts Club. Last week, Minderman graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average and was awarded the President’s Medallion for outstanding achievement.
Minder, a Lockport resident, was able to transfer credits from her previous college degree to avoid re-taking classes outside the culinary arts — except for one computer class.
“Everybody else was whipping through and I had to buy myself a program on how to type,” she laughed. “I thank my teacher for hanging in there.”
Minderman also found herself empathizing a little more with the plight of her daughter, who was studying marketing and advertising at Canisius.
“It kind of gave Emily and me something new in common — when she would call and say ‘Oh my goodness, I have this assignment to do,’ I could really relate,” she laughed.
With a new degree in the culinary arts under her belt, Minderman sees a combination of her past and her present in the future — she hopes to get a master’s degree and teach food science.
“Nothing is etched in stone — I think my life is going one direction, and it can change,” she said. “I think that’s what life is about. It’s not always a smooth road, it’s not always an easy road. The ability to turn that into a positive thing is what’s important.”

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