Photo by Terri Hellmann Among those participating in IU Kokomo's September commencement were (left to right) the Hon. Martin Stanley, member of the IUK board of advisors (background); Cathleen Krebs, assistant chaplain of the Howard Community Hospital; Stuart Green, acting vice chancellor for academic affairs at IUK; and new associate degree recipient Penny Jones. Jones is the first person on either side of her family to graduate from college. Her advice to well-wishers? "Be happy and take care of yourselves. I've always had a positive attitude and that's the most important thing."

Special commencement at IUK had all the trappings

'Be happy and take care of yourselves.'

The ceremony Sept. 22 at Indiana University Kokomo had all the trappings of an ordinary commencement -- the usual processional of robed faculty, stirring musical notes from Pomp and Circumstance, a platform party that included representatives of the Trustees of IU, the IU Alumni Association, IUK's Board of Advisors, the chancellor, a vice chancellor, a dean and a faculty representative. It even ended with the strains of Hail to Old IU.

But nothing about IUK's Penny Jones or her graduation is ordinary. For one thing, the university holds commencements for all of its campuses during May each year. And at each of those ceremonies hundreds of degrees are awarded. (Editor's note: That tradition changes in December. IUB will conduct a midwinter commencement Dec. 21. See related story, this issue..)

Doctors tell Jones she is fighting a losing battle with a terrible disease that has ravaged her since childhood. But on her commencement day, illness was down for the count, and for a brief shining moment Jones stood triumphant before family and friends.

The 24-year-old Kokomo native, now in irreversible heart failure as the result of a long bout with lupus, walked across a stage at IUK to collect the degree she has dreamed of and worked toward for years.

"What has kept me going," said Jones, "first of all, was knowing that nobody in my family -- on either side -- has ever graduated from college. Second, when you're sick and you know how sick you are, you want to try harder than everybody else. And third was my dad. He wanted me to go to college. It was really important to him."

Jones lost her father, Danny, to cancer last April. She and her sister, Amy, and one-year-old nephew, Jonathan, live together in a house that was owned by their father, who was a Vietnam veteran and a retired Chrysler employee.

In May, when her fellow classmates were graduating, however, Jones was quite ill. In fact, that's when John Rudy, IUK professor of English, sent out an E-mail appeal asking IUK colleagues to help supply a needed home oxygen tank for a sick student who was determined to finish college.

It was Rudy who delivered the official commencement remarks, referring to Jones as "a brave contender who has refused to be defeated by the vagaries of long and arduous illness."

The English professor, who first had Jones in his classical mythology class, compared the new graduate to the Olympic victors of ancient Greece, whose achievements were celebrated by the awarding of a simple wreath of wild olive. Rudy quoted 19th-century essayist John Ruskin, who said that Zeus thereby demonstrated to mortals that "not in war, not in wealth, not in tyranny, was there any happiness to be found for them -- only in peace, fruitful and free."

"The conversion of arduous struggle into the gracious qualities of peace and joy," said Rudy, "emerges most conspicuously for those who play the game for the sake of the game itself rather than for empowerment in the competitive arenas of economic productivity and daily living. Grace and high cheerfulness are the qualities I discern as most visible in Penny's manner and style. That she endures physical and emotional hardship and so prevails is also undeniable. But what I find most compelling in my brief association with her is the obvious enjoyment she takes in the learning enterprise itself."

The idea for Jones' commencement came from her aunt, Patty Montgomery of Lafayette, who called the 1991 Taylor High School graduate "a special and courageous person."

"Earning a degree was the one thing Penny wanted most," Montgomery explained. She discussed the idea with Rudy, who took it to IUK Chancellor Emita Hill. A check of Jones' transcript revealed she had completed all requirements for an associate of science degree in applied business studies and, in fact, was only a few hours short of finishing course work for a bachelor of science degree in accounting. But doctors were increasingly pessimistic about the young woman's deteriorating health, and even without unexpected hospitalizations or other delays, next May would be the earliest Jones could earn a bachelor's degree.

In August, when physicians told the young woman she was in cardiopulmonary failure and was an unlikely candidate for a heart-lung transplant, Hill discussed the possibility of a special ceremony with IU President Myles Brand. He approved, and plans for the Sept. 22 ceremony began immediately.

Meanwhile, undaunted, Jones enrolled in an auditing course this fall and has already pre-enrolled in an advanced financial accounting course offered next semester. Her goal, if her health were better, would be to one day work for the IRS.

"I was always good with math, and I've loved my accounting courses at IUK," Jones said, adding that she was forced to give up her job at the Indiana Department of Revenue in 1995.

"I love doing taxes. I taught myself how, and now I do them for my family and friends."

A traditional post-commencement party at a community building across from Taylor High School followed the ceremony. For fellow classmates and friends, Jones had these simple words of advice. "Be happy and take care of yourselves. I've always had a positive attitude and that's the most important thing."

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