Heavily Pregnant Motivated Woman Celebrates Getting Her PhD
- A woman has celebrated acquiring a PhD with an interesting story to it
- The woman said she had her defence when she was 37 weeks pregnant despite several persons telling her that she wasn't going to be successful
- The proud mum will now take on a new title following her achievement
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A proud mother has been celebrated on social media following her recent academic feat. She bagged a PhD in an uncommon fashion.
In a Twitter post, she made celebrating her PhD in environmental engineering, Mary Foltz said she went on to run the programme despite calls by people for her to call it quits as they thought she would fail.
Source: UGC
Mary, undeterred by the discouragement, said she had her first son at the start of the programme and was 37 weeks pregnant again during her defence.
Her new success will see her take on the new title as an associate professor.
Her tweet read:
"Obtaining a PhD and having children are not mutually exclusive. Had my first son in the beginning of my PhD. Last week, I defended my PhD at 37 weeks pregnant. Despite folks telling me it wasn't possible, I am looking forward to being both a mom and assist prof this fall."
Social media users commended her perseverance as they celebrated her. Some women who had similar experiences during their PhD programmes took to the comment section to share their inspirational stories.
@euphrocyn wrote:
"Congratulations! My aunt was pregnant with her third child when she started her masters and had her 8th child just before she finished her PhD."
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@DrMeganWatson said:
"Massive congratulations! I was in a similar position, defended at 37 weeks pregnant while 2.5yo ran around the offices waiting for me to finish. I hope you get some time at a slightly slower pace now! Here's a wee pic of my graduation for a laugh."
@DrChristinaK recounted:
"I was 35 weeks pregnant with my first when I defended my MA, had 3 kids during my PhD and flew from Canada back to Germany alone with my 11 month old to defend my PhD thesis in 2016. A fellow PhD candidate babysat her in the @unikonstanz play room during my Rigorosum."
Briefly News previously reported that after working as the head janitor at Hightower Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia for over two decades, Tylan Bailey has graduated with a teaching degree.
Bailey graduated from Georgia State University with a degree in teaching that he hopes to use to become a physical educator, becauseofthemwecan.com reports.
He attained this feat through hard work, which he began when he decided to go back to college and took classes between his hectic work schedules in 2017.
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Source: Briefly News
Denika Herbst (Editor) Denika Herbst is a Human Interest writer at Briefly News. She is also an Industrial Sociologist with a master's degree in Industrial Organisational and Labour Studies from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, which she completed in 2020. She is now a PhD candidate at UKZN. Denika has over five years of experience writing for Briefly News (joined in 2018), and a short time writing for The South African. You can reach her via: denika.herbst@briefly.co.za.
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
