Shari Warren will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Photo by Angela Foster.
Recovering from heart surgery while working full time and keeping up with her grandkids’ sporting events, Thanksgiving and holiday shopping has made the end of Shari Warren’s year hectic.
On top of it all, she has been taking her final exams and preparing for Saturday, Dec. 13, the day she graduates from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
“It’s a balance,” Warren said. “It’s a tough balance. But I did it.”
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Warren began her college journey at 17 years old. She attended Palm Beach State College near her hometown in South Florida but dropped out two years later.
“Life happens. I met someone, we had kids, we had our own business,” she said. “I didn’t really need the degree.”
She went back to school years later, but again, life happened.
“I quit school, moved away and was a single mom, so school was out of the question,” she said.
In Chattanooga, where she has lived for the past 30 years, Warren worked for a nationwide large-item delivery company, eventually becoming an administrative assistant to the company’s national director.
When her boss moved north, she stayed behind to be closer to family.
“Losing my job, it was very challenging to find a new job that was comparable to my salary and benefits that I was getting after being employed for 16 years,” she said. “I decided that I would never be in that position again.”
She enrolled at UTC in January 2024 and has not stopped since, taking full course loads and summer classes all online. Meanwhile, she has worked at the Tennessee Valley Authority, first as a management assistant and now as an engineering support specialist.
Working for TVA was a driving force behind Warren’s desire to finish her degree, she said, as she wanted to get more involved in the “beat of the business.”
“I knew that I wanted to do more than what was offered,” she said. “I wanted to be an individual contributor to the team.
“I would love to be in management one day. This would be a path to that versus staying in the admin position. With my degree now, it opens up the door.”
Warren works four 10-hour shifts during the week, usually leaving her only the weekends to complete her assignments.
“Remembering the math and sciences, having to take all of those classes, it would’ve been so much easier for me to do it the first time … It’s hard to go back after 40 years,” she said with a laugh. “I feel like I’ve had to work even harder, even with technology. I work on project teams, and so many of them are so tech-savvy. All of this is new to me.”
The drive to finish the degree and feel the confidence that comes with turning the tassel allowed her to persevere.
“Over the years, it has always been in the back of my mind,” she said. “At previous companies, I would look to a colleague and think, ‘I could do that. I could be doing that right now.’ I never went for it for many years.
“I had 25 years’ experience and I knew I was overqualified in a lot of cases, but if they required the degree, there were opportunities that the door just wouldn’t open.”
Some of the greatest motivators have been her husband, three children and four grandchildren.
“They’ve been watching me do this,” Warren said. “The older ones especially, they’re coming to graduation, so they’ve seen me work hard. I hope that inspires them to do the same.”
After years of dreaming what it would be like to say those words, “I did it,” she will be able to close the book on education—for now.
“I need a break right now, but I wouldn’t totally rule out going for my master’s degree,” she said with a quick laugh.
Crossing “bachelor’s degree” off her list marks a milestone she once wasn’t sure she’d ever reach.
“It’s been a lot of work, but it paid off and I’m going to have it,” she said. “I will always have that and no matter what, nobody could ever take that away or I won’t ever lose it.”
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