Findlay, Ohio, Dec. 10, 2004 – After attending college intermittently since 1981, Findlay native Laurel Rosebush will receive a bachelor’s degree in technology management from The University of Findlay during commencement exercises Saturday, Dec. 11 at 2 p.m. in the Koehler Fitness and Recreation Center.

Earning her degree will be even more special because Laurel will pick up her diploma seconds after her daughter, Brannon Rosebush, receives her bachelor’s degree in human resource management.

Saturday’s ceremony will be the second time the pair has graduated together. Laurel earned her associate’s degree in computer programming from then Lima Technical College in 1983, and Brannon graduated from LTC’s Kiddie College daycare program at the same time.

“We started together, and it’s nice to finish with her,” Brannon said.

Both Rosebushes are graduating with honors.

After graduating from LTC, Laurel intended to go on to earn her bachelor’s degree, but instead focused on her marriage, two children and working. After she suffered a fluke heart attack in which she tore an artery while lifting a television, she reevaluated her life, deciding to leave her factory job.

“I knew I couldn’t spend the rest of my life there,” she said, and she returned to college to get her bachelor’s degree.

She enrolled at UF in the spring of 2003, and Brannon, who had taken classes at Bowling Green State University and Owens Community College, joined her a year later.

Mother and daughter agree that attending UF together has been nothing but a positive experience. Although they’ve never had a class together, they frequently studied together and proofread each other’s papers.

“We can bounce ideas off each other,” Laurel said.

Brannon said that she barely sees her mother on campus. She said that, had her mother attended the same college as she when she began her studies in 1997, she might have felt as if she were being checked up on. However, as she was older when she began at UF, Brannon was happy to go to school with her mom.

The Rosebushes will celebrate their joint graduation Saturday night with a big party at the Days Inn. Laurel said that they’ve invited “just about everybody in town.”

Following graduation, Brannon hopes to find a job in her field in Florida. She also wants to pursue a master’s degree in human resources.

Her mother, who has worked as an intern in the University’s Technology Management Office, hopes to work in that career area at a college or university.

“I really like the college campus atmosphere,” she said.

Laurel’s job plans will depend upon where she and her husband may move following his retirement.