All in the family: Sisters, brother-in-law graduate together from Keiser University
FORT PIERCE− Sitting a few rows apart Friday night, Natasha and Charlene Le Gendre and Gabriel McMinn cheered as each walked across the stage to receive their college diplomas.
The sisters and their brother-in-law had the unique opportunity to graduate together from Keiser University. Graduation day was a testament to their family's support and an ode to Joyce Le Gendre their late mother and mother-in-law, who died in 2020.
Natasha was two months from graduating with her bachelor's degree in nursing from Keiser when her mother died, and she remembers her mother's encouraging words: "No matter what happens, keep going."
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Three years later and Natasha, 42, graduated with a master's degree in nursing, with her sister Charlene, 21, who received an associate degree in graphic art and design. McMinn, 31, earned an associates degree in nursing.
"After I graduated (in 2020), I remember that winter when Charlene came and said, 'I want to go to Keiser,'" Natasha said. "It was like Mommy said ... to keep going."
The sisters were later joined at Keiser by McMinn, who transferred to the Port St. Lucie campus from the Miami campus to be closer to the Le Gendre family, who lived in Port St. Lucie. He served in the Air Force from 2011-2020, and plans to eventually return as a certified registered nurse anesthetist.
Natasha, a nurse at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce, is planning to become an Air Force flight nurse and then pursue her doctor of nursing practice degree at Keiser.
"I've always been a servant leader, and being a nurse allows me to give back to the community with that sense of reward to just know that you're making a difference," Natasha said.
The support system of professors and administration at the university has been instrumental in Natasha's success throughout her five-year journey.
"If you ever lose someone, you gain a village at Keiser," Natasha said. "Especially when my mom passed on, it was a whole new level of village support that I got that I would have never expected from a university."
For Charlene, graduating was momentous because it let her study art, which her mother had pushed her to pursue, she said.
"I look back at everything that has happened, good and bad, and I still made it," Charlene said proudly. "It's more than just graduating. I'm celebrating everything I did before. If 12-year-old me saw herself now, [she] would be like, 'Yeah you did it.'"
Gianna Montesano is TCPalm's trending reporter. You can contact her at gianna.montesano@tcpalm.com, 772-409-1429 or follow her on Twitter @gmontesano13.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Family graduates from Port St. Lucie Keiser University campus together
