By Alicia Allison
It was fitting that Dawn and Madi Bradley graduated together from the University of Kansas School of Nursing on Mother’s Day this year. Dawn Bradley, 49, decided to return back to school after having spent years focused on raising her four kids. Her daughter, Madi, decided to pursue a nursing degree after graduating from Shawnee Mission East.
“My mom had actually started nursing school before me,” said Madi, 22. “So she was in it when I was doing my prerequisites in Lawrence. But when we found out that…we would be in the same classes, I think it was kind of funny at first. We were like, ‘That’s kind of weird. I never thought I’d be in school with my mom.’”
Dawn returned to school once her four children grew older and became more independent. She took her prerequisite courses at Johnson County Community College and then got accepted to University of Kansas in 2013. However, after Dawn’s father died in a car accident in Sedalia, Mo., in 2014, she took some time off from school to focus on her family.
“Originally I was supposed to graduate before my daughter got into nursing school, but I lost my father in a car accident and so it put me behind on some classes,” said Dawn. “I dropped some classes and it took me a while to get them made up. By the time I was back to finishing my classes for my junior year, my daughter applied to KU and got in. It ended up being that we would be in the same graduating class.”
Dawn’s husband, Cobi, and children Dale, Krey, Madi, and Simon were all very supportive of Dawn going back to school. Her youngest child, Simon, graduated from Shawnee Mission East in May and will be studying kinesiology at Kansas State University this fall.
“Some of my kids were still in high school and one was in middle school when I went back,” said Dawn. “In the beginning it was kind of hard juggling family. I was working part time and going to school. That was kind of hard. I took my time and when I finally got into KU, it was a huge change because I was full time. Nursing is a really hard program at KU, so it was a lot of managing my time. I got a lot of help from my family.”
Dawn received extra help from Madi while she was studying as they had the same classes throughout the nursing program. Though Madi was generally a straight-A student, Dawn found it difficult to sit next to Madi during their lectures.
“For a while we would sit together,” said Madi. “I think she got annoyed with me really quick, because I’m definitely a talkative person in class. So, she was like ‘I need to separate myself from you or I’m not going to learn anything.’ But we really had a lot of fun.”
