Mother and Daughter Graduate with Honors

By Susan Etxebarria

Jeanette Cypress, 51, and her daughter, Desiree Jumper, 24, both earned their Associate of Arts degrees last December. Cypress graduated from Palm Beach Community College at Belle Glade and Jumper graduated from Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in Salisbury, North Carolina. Both mom and daughter graduated with high honors and were inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

“It was exciting at home for both of us to be graduating at the same time, but I think it was even more exciting for my mother because it was the end of a long journey,” Jumper said.

Jeanette Cypress never graduated from high school. She dropped out when she was a teenage mom. Later, she acquired some college credits from classes she took at the University of Albuquerque, N.M. in the ’80s. “I always wanted to go back to school someday,” she said. But it took a long time to attain her goal because she returned to Big Cypress and raised eight children while working at various jobs over the years.

“Getting an education is very important in our family and we try to raise our children with that idea. As a parent I taught my children to get an education and so I went back to college because I had to practice what I was preaching,” Cypress said. “I had to set an example.”

Cypress said her grandmother couldn’t speak English and so she was the grandchild who translated for her. But her grandmother taught her the Seminole ways. “She inspired me to learn our culture but she always pushed me to get an education,” she said.

By the time Cypress returned to college three years ago, she was already working for the Tribe as the culture teacher at Ahfachkee School. Now she wants to continue further in her college education and obtain a bachelor’s degree, and then, if possible, a master’s degree. “I tell my students what I have learned from my life. If life doesn’t turn out the way you think you want it, you have to just pick yourself up and keep on going.” Some day you will reach your goals, she said. Even if it takes a lifetime.

“My grandmother wasn’t there to see me graduate. She passed away. But my mother, Agnes Billie, was there. I was her first child to graduate from college,” Cypress said.

A couple of her own children are now attending college. Desiree Kari Jumper is the first to earn a degree.

Jumper plans to return to school as well. She intends to get her Bachelor of Arts in elementary education. “I came from a big family and I love children,” she said. She hopes she will be able to teach one day at a Seminole Tribe school. “My ultimate goal is to come back and teach for my people, but life doesn’t always work out the way you want,” she said, echoing her mother’s sentiment.

Jumper graduated from Clewiston High school in 2001. She said college is hard work. “The main reason I have been able to get through school is because of my family. They came to visit me often. They came when I got awards. They were so supportive. My father, Danny Jumper, came to see me and encouraged me.”

“It’s very important with the way the world is going for Tribal members to get educated and come back to the reservation and take over the leadership of Tribal departments,” she said.

Jumper is expecting a child this fall, but she said motherhood won’t stop her from going back to school after the birth. “I don’t have an excuse. If mom can go to school at 51, with eight kids, I can do it.”