{"id":74716,"date":"2025-05-05T08:58:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=74716"},"modified":"2025-05-05T09:22:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T16:22:33","slug":"randi-garcia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/randi-garcia\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Randi Garcia: \u2018Dreams are worth chasing, even if life delays them\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a big weekend for <\/span>Randi Garcia<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, she\u2019ll be in the Skydome with her family, cheering for her daughter, <\/span>Justiss Green<\/span><\/b>, who is graduating with a degree in strategic communication.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And on Saturday, she\u2019ll be back in the Skydome, wearing her own robes this time, her family cheering as she graduates with a degree in elementary education\u2014a goal that started decades ago but had to be put on hold as life got complicated.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew I wanted to go back and finish what I started, not just for career reasons but to prove to myself and my kids that dreams are worth chasing, even if life delays them,\u201d Garcia said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Garcia connected with NAU as part of the <\/span>Arizona Teachers Academy<\/span><\/a> (ATA), which is aimed at reducing the teacher shortage in the state. The ATA not only offers scholarships to teachers staying in Arizona after graduation but also provides built-in mentorship and support while students are enrolled and after they graduate. She applied, was accepted and started taking online classes from her home in Florence.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Randi
Randi Garcia<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, working more school into an already busy life\u2014Garcia is a mom of four, a full-time teacher and takes care of her parents\u2014 wasn\u2019t easy. A first-generation student, she powered through the busy times, juggling deadlines, lesson plans, grading papers, parenting and homework. She didn\u2019t sleep as much as she wanted and missed events she wanted to attend.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many nights I stayed up working on assignments after helping with homework, cooking dinner and prepping for the next school day,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI went through some deeply personal family challenges during this time, including moments that nearly made me stop altogether. But my children were always watching and I didn\u2019t want them to see me give up. I wanted to prove to myself and my kids that dreams are worth chasing, even if life delays them.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She took classes online with her time already in the classroom counting for the student teaching requirement. Garcia applied what she learned in her college classes to her own classroom of middle school students, and she took her experiences in her classroom and worked them into her own assignments. In addition to maintaining a 4.0 GPA, she passed all of the necessary qualifying exams.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two Lumberjacks, one house<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unusual to find two Lumberjacks in one Arizona household. It\u2019s a little more unusual to see a mother and daughter graduate at the same time.\u00a0 It was almost an inside joke for Garcia and Green.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve encouraged each other, laughed about how different our class styles are and even struggled through a few hard semesters together,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cNow we\u2019re both graduating in May\u2014something I never imagined happening at the same time. It\u2019s one of the most special moments I\u2019ll ever experience.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Justiss
Justiss Green<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly so surreal\u2014like, what are the odds?\u201d Green added. \u201cIt\u2019s been such a cool experience to go through college at the same time as my mom, and now we get to celebrate that together. We\u2019ve definitely joked about who\u2019s the \u2018real star\u2019 of the weekend.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides swapping stories about professors and class assignments and learning to relate to each other in a new way, Green said it was inspiring to watch her mother chase this dream. It helped her chase her own dreams, which included a bucket-list study abroad experience in Athens, Greece. Green took classes and added a few more stamps to her passport, including Italy and Ireland.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love history, and being surrounded by ancient ruins and such a rich culture was unreal,\u201d she said. \u201cThat trip pushed me out of my comfort zone in the best way and really gave me confidence to explore the world more. My advice if you are looking into study abroad is to literally just do it\u2014don\u2019t even think twice about it.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Green took advantage of her on-campus experiences too, enjoying the natural beauty of northern Arizona, including quintessential study sessions in the north quad. She found support among her professors and peers at NAU\u2019s Flagstaff Mountain campus.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s next<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Randi
Randi Garcia in her classroom in Florence, Arizona<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Garcia has no plans to slow down. After graduation, she\u2019ll still be teaching in Florence, plus she\u2019s going back to school again, this time for a master of public administration degree at NAU.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m passionate about advocacy and system change, especially around equity and support for teachers and students,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope to one day be in a position where I can help shape the policies that impact classrooms every day.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Green wants to work at a public relations firm or in social media for a lifestyle or wellness brand\u2014something people-focused that gives her the chance to put what she\u2019s learned to use. But maybe not just yet.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also not ruling out more travel,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d love to keep exploring before I fully settle into a 9-to-5 for sure.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a big weekend for Randi Garcia.\u00a0 On Friday, she\u2019ll be in the Skydome with her family, cheering for her daughter, Justiss Green, who is graduating with a degree in strategic communication.\u00a0 And on Saturday, she\u2019ll be back in the Skydome, wearing her own robes this time, her family cheering as she graduates with…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":74717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}