By Francis Von Mann
LEXINGTON, KY. (Nov. 12, 2025) – Bernadine “Bernie” McGhee never imagined herself with a college degree. But in 2022 at 61, McGhee crossed the stage of Rupp Arena with a bachelor's degree in liberal studies from the College of Arts and Sciences.
“I thought I’d be a factory worker for the rest of my life,” McGhee said. “College wasn’t part of the plan. But life has a funny way of circling back.”
McGhee grew up in Gary, Indiana, one of nine children in a family where steel dust clung to everything: clothes, homes, hopes and dreams. Her parents both worked in the mills, and she expected to do the same. At 18, she took a job at Ball Glass, the company known for its canning jars. “We didn’t talk about college,” she said. “We talked about overtime.”
Still, she tried to balance those hours with night classes at Indiana University in the 1980s. But the demands of factory life eventually forced her to leave school. She would spend the next 15 years of her life working whenever the factory needed.
Life took a turn in the early 1990s when the mills shut down. McGhee and her husband decided to start over in Kentucky. Her first job at UK was behind a counter, working as a barista at the mezzanine café in Patterson Office Tower. McGhee met many college professors and administrators over hot cups of coffee and cookies.
One of them, then College of Arts and Sciences associate dean Adrienne McMahon, became a mentor. McMahon even found a typewriter for McGhee to practice typing.
That encouragement changed everything. McGhee signed up for a UK Human Resources class called Meet the Computer. At first, she didn’t even know how to turn the computer on. She kept at it, diligently applying herself to learning a new skill.
One day, a thought came to her. “Why work at a learning institution and not learn?” She said. “It hit me: I could be more than a paycheck every two weeks.”
With the help of the university’s employee tuition benefit, she enrolled at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in 2013. She earned her associate degree in 2019 and transferred to UK that fall to finish her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies, with a minor in African American and Africana studies.
Her coursework in sociology, gender studies, and African American history opened her eyes. In class, she often bridged generations and often helped provide real world examples for the subject. The civil rights era wasn’t just history; it was her own memory.
She finished her degree during the pandemic, balancing Zoom classes with her job at the Counseling Center, where’s she’s now worked for over twenty years. Her colleagues supported her and cheered her on every step of the way. But the real push came from the generations whose work made hers possible.
McGhee is the first of nine siblings, and the fifth generation of women in her family, to earn a college degree. “My mother didn’t finish high school. My grandmother didn’t. My great grandmother's mother was a slave,” she said. “I did this for them.”
McGhee turned 65 this summer, but she’s not done learning. She’s considering graduate work in gender and women’s studies. “I still have a lot to learn,” she said, smiling. “I’ve got my whole life ahead of me.”