Alyssa Bertrand

“I have a problem: it’s called logic!” something we all think at some point, but Kristie Avery admits she has said it many times. Kristie Avery will celebrate her birthday in the winter when Christmas cheer is all around.

Avery has been married for 23 years to a wonderful man named Doug. Doug is a captain for the Texarkana, Arkansas Police Department. He has been a part of the police department for 25 years. Through the love from Doug and Kristie, they brought two more lives to into the world. Their son, Tim, 20 years of age and currently attending Henderson State University. Tim plays baritone in the band and will major in music education to become a band director. Heather, 18 years of age is attending Henderson State University alongside her brother. Heather plays the trumpet in the university’s band but majors in nursing.

Avery’s life in Arkansas began 23 years ago, after moving from southern California where she was born and raised. Her commute from her home to the Texas A&M University-Texarkana campus is only about 10-12 miles.

Avery is now a Graduation Specialist at TAMU-T. She underwent a year and a half of training before receiving the title. Avery loves her job now, but this is not what she wanted to be when she was younger. Her dream was to become the next Christine Amanpour, a reporter who traveled the world to cover stories. She was on and off the camera. Amanpour was Avery’s idol at the time. In order to reach her dreams, she continued her education at Texas A&M University- Texarkana. After earning her Mass Communication degree from TAMU-T, she took her journalism degree and went for the big goal. Her dream was to be a traveling journalist and adventure all over the world. She wanted to be an on camera reporter. After being on the staff of a local newspaper, Avery’s mass communication degree took her to work for a local television station as a reporter/photographer for two years. Then she decided to work for a local newspaper for three and a half years before returning to work at her Alma matter. Avery did not start out as a graduation specialist. She started by helping with the long graduation process. While doing so, the people around her began to realize she was good at her job and she was able to start training for the actual job title. As a graduation specialist, one must be able to put in long hours in order to pull graduation together. The process is long and has to be looked over multiple times.

When first applying for graduation, one must apply online, the application is then emailed to Mrs. Avery, and she will then print off the application. A few items need to be checked and in place before the process can continue. These are; make sure one has the correct number of credit hours, how many upper and lower level classes compared to how many one must have to graduation. To graduate, one’s GPA must be at a certain point and one needs to have a amount of resident credit hours as well. Avery has to be able to see if one is missing any classes and then help the student as much as possible to earn those credits for a certain course.

After printing out the application, she will attach one’s degree works to the application itself. She will then make sure she notifies the applicant if any items are missing or if she has any questions. The process of looking over the applications could be examined many times before one approves it for further processing.

To prepare for the day of graduation, not much is left to do. Avery and her fellow coworkers goes to the venue the day before to get some rows roped off, signs in the right places, and then the day of graduation ensuring every person has the correct name card. As graduation gets closer and closer, the more time everyone must spend outside of the office. Usually nine to ten-hour days become necessary. When asked how her family felt about the long days she responded, “My husband is not too happy about me being gone, but he knows it is for the students. I am always at my children’s events no matter what goes on at work”. No matter how many hours she clocks in at work, she will always make time for her family.

Avery does not see free time as much as she would like, but when she does have it, she likes to spend it with her family. She enjoys attending band events for her children and constructing jewelry. In the future, she has a desire to make the process for graduation easier for all students.

As a graduation specialist, Kristie Avery sees and hears many stories that are inspirational to her. One story stood out to her. It is when she was able to see the oldest person from TAMU-T walk across the stage. The woman was 70 to 80 years old. Seeing her graduate showed everyone is able to complete one’s dream. Not one thing in this huge world is out of reach. Even if one is 80 years old and finally graduating, one can achieve if one believes.