Centralia College Student, 58, Continues Education After Getting Diploma

Forty years after she would have graduated high school, Shirley Lowry-Ralls plans to celebrate earning her high school diploma through Centralia College’s Odegaard Phoenix Center by walking at the college’s commencement next month. 

Lowry-Ralls, 58, didn’t stop at her diploma. She’s now pursuing an associate degree and hopes to one day work as a counselor. 

“It’s very fulfilling. It does a lot for my confidence,” she said of her time at Centralia College. “I’m really hungry for the knowledge I’m getting.”

However, that wasn’t always the case. Before heading back to Centralia College, Lowry-Ralls hadn’t taken a class for decades. 

“I quit high school when I was two weeks shy of being 17 and got married, as was the thing to do at the time,” she said. 

Since then, she moved from Modesto, California, to San Francisco and eventually Southwest Washington. She raised three children, now aged 25, 23 and 19. She worked delivering newspapers for a time, then became a caregiver for her mother and others. 

She first moved to Washington in 1986. 

“It just looked like green velvet,” she said of the first time she saw Southwest Washington. 

Lowry-Ralls said she always regretted not finishing her high school education. As her children grew up and left home, a friend encouraged her to check out the Phoenix Center, which provides “transitional education” to help adults get a high school diploma or GED, prepare for college classes or learn English as a second language. 

The center offers high school diplomas and GEDs for students 21 years or older.

“Probably about 20 percent of my students … are older. Their children are in high school or out of school,” said Deborah Shriver, program manager for basic skills at the Phoenix Center. 

Shriver said getting a GED or high school diploma through the program shows adults that they can have more options in their work life. 

“You’re never too old to do this,” Shriver said. “If your desire is still there, you should do it.”

Lowry-Ralls received her diploma last fall, about a year and a half after she restarted her studies. 

“At first it just seemed a little unreal,” she said. 

Immediately after getting her diploma, she started college classes. She made it on Centralia College’s honor roll in her first quarter. 

“It just goes to show what you can do when you apply yourself,” she said. 

She and her youngest son Tim Ralls, 19, received their high school diploma at about the same time. Ralls graduated from Centralia High School last year. 

“We were talking for a couple years leading up to it (about) how cool it would be,” Ralls said. 

Now they both are working toward their associate’s degrees at Centralia College. 

“I thought it would be really cool if we took a class together,” Ralls said. 

Lowry-Ralls said she feels more capable of appreciating her education now than she did as a teenager. While she is one of the oldest students in many of her classes, she said the college has a very welcoming atmosphere. 

“People are honestly really, really accepting,” she said. “We’re all in the same boat.”

Lowry-Ralls doesn’t plan to end her quest for education any time soon. She has a goal of earning a degree in psychology or sociology and becoming a counselor. 

“I thank God for everything,” she said.