"I feel her spirit": Cal State grad studied in same halls where her mom was a patient
On Saturday, Spooner Greenbird climbed a stage in the South Quad of CSU Channel Islands. On her head was a mortarboard, the sign of a promise kept.
The Newbury Park resident, who earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, was chosen to deliver a speech during the university's first commencement Saturday morning. Of the 2,600 CSUCI students eligible to graduate this spring, nearly 1,200 were slated to gather degrees across a series of ceremonies Saturday and Sunday.
For Greenbird, the moment capped a long-standing vow. The day her mother died of cancer, Greenbird had made her two promises.
One: She would live without fear. She'd conquer the social anxiety that had plagued her for years and sometimes kept her even from placing her order at a restaurant.
Two: She would earn her bachelor's.
"Get that degree, sunshine," her mother said
On Saturday, the university's tile-roofed buildings — home of the Camarillo State Mental Hospital until 1997 — surrounded the graduating class. In their first life, those same red roofs had sheltered Greenbird's mother.
"I feel tied to this place," Greenbird said Friday as she prepared for the event. "I feel the spirit of my mother."
Childhood visit
Decades ago — the graduate doesn't talk about her age — a 7-year-old Greenbird drove onto the mental hospital grounds at night with her father and parked under the iconic Bell Tower.
Greenbird's mother was a patient staying one of several spells at the hospital, but Greenbird was too young for an official visit. So her mother snuck to meet father and daughter at the barred window of a women's restroom. The moment was fleeting, Greenbird said, but unforgettable.
In those days, her mother's schizophrenia was a bandit, stealing away the resilient, kind woman Greenbird treasured. The episodes would leave her mother in terrible pain, Greenbird said, feeling like God was punishing her.
But, Greenbird said, she could always rely on the hospital. "Whenever she stayed there," Greenbird said. "They would bring her back to me."
It took Greenbird awhile after her mother died to get started on her degree. Her father had died years before, and now the family of Michigan transplants was whittled to one. "I was devastated," she said.
But she pressed on, and after studying a few years at Santa Monica College and weathering the pandemic, she transferred to CSUCI in 2021.
There, she said, she found a sense of calm, a family to replace the one she'd lost and a new career path. Inspired by her professors, she decided that instead of studying to be a counselor, she'll pursue clinical research.
Greenbird, who is Chippewa, hopes to focus on anxiety and gender issues among Native Americans.
"That hits close to home," she said, laughing.
Among Greenbird's treasures is a bumper sticker she purchased at CSUCI's bookstore two years ago, when she first started.
"Proud Parent," it reads, next to a cartoon image of the university's dolphin mascot.
On Sunday, she'll head to the cemetery, find her mother's grave and leave behind the sticker. She's sure her mother will see.
"Good job, sunshine," Greenbird imagines her saying. "OK, what's your next degree?"
Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: CSU Channel Islands grad fulfills her mother's last wish
