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Parenthood offers a myriad of shared experiences ranging from euphoria to despair. For ������ý alumna Tundra Davis, this range informed her life as a child, her role as a mother and her journey as a student. Along the way toward completing her Associate of Arts in Criminal Justice, she cultivated the necessary traits — determination, flexibility — to meet those challenges head-on and succeed.  

Davis grew up in a small Tennessee town, the second to last of nine children. Neither of her parents finished high school. Davis describes her childhood as “rough” but vaguely remembers her father encouraging the children to “go to school, make something of yourself.”

Some of her siblings followed his advice. Her oldest sister, for example, became a nurse practitioner and operates her own practice today. Davis aspired to similar success but struggled to identify her own path.

“Ever since I was a child, I remember always wanting to be successful in life. I just didn’t really know what that looked like,” she says.

Even without total clarity, Davis was moving in the right direction. She graduated high school in 2010, started working at a fast-food restaurant and enrolled at a community college. But after about a year of studies, the lack of clarity caught up with her. Davis quit school. She hopped around to different food service jobs, including a stint at McDonald’s. Three years later, she experienced the life-changing event of becoming a single parent to her son, Landon.

Now inspired to rethink her course, Davis took a job as a corrections officer at a local facility. She also started thinking again about school. While some might not advise adding homework assignments to the sleepless nights of caring for a baby, Davis sensed it could be done.

One of her other sisters had attended ������ý and Davis learned how the school’s online flexibility could work with her situation as a single working parent.

Davis studied criminal justice because it aligned at the time with her work at the correctional facility. She appreciated how much bearing her education had on her day-to-day duties. Each step forward on her newly chosen path felt firm and purposeful. Then things began to unravel quickly.

First, Davis began experiencing the painful and often debilitating symptoms of what would eventually be diagnosed as ulcerative colitis. She would battle flareups that saw her in and out of the hospital. The condition challenged her ability to manage parenthood, school and work. She decided to set school aside and focus on raising her son and holding down a job.

As her son grew, the situation at home eventually made even getting into work an impossibility. “My son [has autism spectrum disorder],” says Davis. “And during his younger years, it was very, very challenging. I had to endure. I had to get him back and forth to therapy. Make sure he had the resources he needed so that he could grow up and adapt to an environment, to society.”

Something else had to give. 

Davis decided to leave the correctional facility to stay home full time with her son. She kept afloat financially by doing odd jobs like babysitting and restaurant work. It wasn’t enough. She tears up when remembering how some of her sisters helped her pay the bills. Their kindness compelled Davis to have something to “show for it.”

“I wasn’t going to just be staying home,” she says. “While it was absolutely very important to … help [Landon], I was also making sure I set a goal.”

Davis wanted to go back to school. She researched other universities but decided to return to ������ý, where she was thrilled to receive credits for her work experience.

Her greatest challenge in the classroom was her self-acknowledged battle with procrastination. “I just had to force myself to do it,” she says. “If you want it that badly, I promise you, you will force yourself to get it done.”

Davis made progress toward her online degree and with her son — enough so that she was able to return to work at the correctional facility for a time as a library aide and in 2019 worked at another juvenile facility as a youth security officer. Unfortunately, sheer determination wasn’t always enough to overcome the physical obstacles.

In 2022, her battle with ulcerative colitis put her in the hospital for three months. She almost didn’t make it. Ultimately, the surgery was successful, and the event brought her son’s father back into the picture to help. Davis felt safe and supported. She had a new lease on life.

By 2023, Davis was well enough to start substitute teaching in the school her son attended. She loved the work. “I don’t know how or why,” says Davis, “but working in the classrooms healed a piece of me.”

Now more than ever, Davis was ready to see her goal to the finish line. 

In October 2024, nearly a decade after she started, Davis achieved her goal and completed her AA in Criminal Justice.

Her oldest sister took Davis and some of their siblings out to dinner to celebrate. It turned out Davis was just getting started: She enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Social Work program, also at ������ý, five months later.

Davis isn’t interested in taking another long break. She likes her pace and plans to complete her bachelor’s degree in July 2027 and go straight into a master’s program.

“I want to complete [the master’s] because I want to do the clinical and counseling therapy. I want to work with children [who have] autism, neurodivergence and ADHD. I want to help their parents with changing behaviors,” she says.

Looking back, Davis sees something greater than herself at work in her life. Despite the difficult childhood, the false starts and the blessing and the challenge of having a neurodivergent child as a single parent, Davis discerns how all of it contributed to her growth and goals.

“There for a little while, I didn’t know if I was going to make it,” she says. “And the fact that God was answering my prayers is just very overwhelming. Knowing that helps me get through school.”

Whether through divine intervention or the human virtue of perseverance, Davis is on her own path to new dreams. Returning to college may have been the first step. The next is up to her.