Mother and daughter duo graduate from Grambling

9th May 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Nayita Wilson
Contributing Writer

A mother-daughter duo from Monroe, La. will graduate from Grambling State University on May 12. The shared milestone highlights the perseverance of Suzzon Jiles and her daughter Trinity Jiles.

Both women completed their undergraduate studies at Grambling during the COVID-19 pandemic while balancing family, work, and extracurricular commitments.

Suzzon Jiles, 48, is a wife and mother. Her upbringing and a desire for change prompted her to enroll at Grambling.

She is the second oldest off 10 siblings, which led her to drop out of high school during her youth to serve as a caretaker in her family. Later, at the age of 21, Suzzon earned her high school diploma through mail correspondence courses. Two decades later, she obtained an associate degree in early childhood from Louisiana Delta Community college in 2017.

“After 3 years, I decided I wanted to go back because I was sitting at home and not really doing anything. I wanted to be the director of a childcare center and decided to go back and get a bachelor’s,” Suzzon Jiles said.

In January 2021, Suzzon enrolled at Grambling as a non-traditional student while maintaining part-time employment as a beautician. She will graduate from the university with a bachelor’s degree in child development and plans to open a childcare development center with one goal of helping children who have reading and learning challenges.

“I cannot stop the tears from flowing,” she said of the joy of graduating alongside her daughter.
Trinity Jiles, 21, will graduate from Grambling with a bachelor’s degree in biology and will further her academic career at Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry. She said her time at Grambling developed her academically and personally.

“Coming to this institution has taught me leadership skills, time management, and how to grow as a young adult,” Trinity Jiles said.

As Trinity moves forward, she’s poised to take advantage of a foundation she and her family have worked to establish.

“In grade school, science was my favorite subject,” Trinity Jiles said. “We took a career path test my freshman year of high school and my results came back saying I should be in the “health care field” and I was invited to a school of medicine camp at the University of Houston, in Houston, Texas. We shadowed doctors and surgeons and I knew I wanted to major in biology when I got to college. So what I really want to do is become a pediatric dentist. Grambling has set me up to hopefully live out and realize that dream, and I’m so appreciative to the university and everyone here who’s helped me.”

While at Grambling, Trinity spent two summer semesters at Meharry, which her mother said stirred her passion for dentistry.

“I am so excited about what my daughter has done as being a young Black soon-to-be dentist. She’s persevered,” Suzzon Jiles said. “Her future is bright. I just want to see her grow and develop and be on a new level that kids only dream of. I met a young lady who had never seen a Black dentist, and I think that Trinity becoming a dentist would be a huge help here in Monroe.”

This article originally published in the May 9, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.