When Tom DeGeorge, walks across the stage at commencement, he will officialy become the first official Ph.D. graduate in Waynesburg University’s history.

DeGeorge has been working towards achieving his doctorate degree in Waynesburg’s counselor education and supervisor program on and off for the past 35 years.

“I always wanted to go back and finish; never say never, I guess,” said DeGeorge. “You can always go back and do the things you wanted to do. The opportunities are there.”

In addition to collecting his diploma, DeGeorge will also be featured as the graduate speaker. As he addresses the crowd about life’s journey, he will most likely picture his father, who never had the chance to graduate after dropping out during his freshman year of high school, but wanted his children to be educated.

DeGeorge said to his father, education was the most important thing. Even at the age of 92, he said his father was still excited when his son started to work towards finishing what he had started working toward his doctorate degree

“He was really excited for me to start the program,” said DeGeorge, “but, unfortunately, he didn’t get to see me finish, which has been a bittersweet memory for me. Part of it was just that accomplishment for myself, but, as the years moved on, I really wanted to go back and finish it up and, basically, do it for my dad because that was something he felt was very important.”

To get his Ph. D., DeGeorge had to successfully put together and defend a dissertation. His topic had to do with Autistic children growing up.

“I researched the lived experiences of parents who have raised a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder,” DeGeorge said.

DeGeorge’s goals moving forward after graduation, are to get a job at a college or university as a faculty member and to continue working in private practice. His other goal is to possibly move back home to Philadelphia.