Single Mom to Celebrate Mother’s Day with a Graduation Ceremony: Her Own!

May 8, 2005 — Brookville, NY—Brookhaven resident Rosemarie Daconto always thought about going back to school, but it was 9/11 and its aftermath that finally made her do it. “I realized how quickly life is taken away from us, and I started thinking about the goals I had for myself that I never followed through with,” said Daconto, who graduates from the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University with a B.F.A. in Art Education on May 8.

She started by taking four classes, and quit her job in a travel agency. “I felt a strong calling that it was my time,” she said, “and I felt a strong urge to make a difference.” She began working part-time from home as a travel agent, upped her classes to six after her first semester, and maintained a 4.0 grade point average despite the hectic schedule. “I remember laying on the floor working on a sculpture project and saying to my son, ‘I’m going to quit, it’s too much.’” Her son, Frank, now 22, offered inspiration, saying to her that she always told him that he couldn’t quit and she shouldn’t quit either.

Since childhood she wanted to become an art teacher. “Art is a bridge for many students; art provides a safe place,” she said.  “My art room provides each student not only with the skills in artistic expression and art comprehension but with personal enrichment. The goal is to have the students reach their authentic self through the experience of art.”

Her student-teaching experience at Commack High School only confirmed this desire. At the end of her tenure, her students filled out evaluation forms and wrote how she taught with her heart. “It was the proudest day of my three-year experience,” she said. “I knew then I had done the right thing. I knew that I had touched most of those students. The commuting, the homework, everything was worth it.”             

Daconto will be one ofmore than 2,200 students who will don their caps and gowns on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 8, 2005 for the 47th annual commencement exercises of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. The Campus has awarded more than 90,000 degrees in its 50-year history, through a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs.