When JohnDavid Lancaster was in fifth grade, his mother was laid off because she didn’t have a college degree. But she unmistakably modeled the value of education when she went back to school full time to earn her degree in nursing while working a full-time job and a part-time job and taking care of Lancaster and his sister. By the time he was in ninth grade, his mom had completed her degree and taught her children a powerful lesson about tenacity. Her experience also showed Lancaster how important a degree would be to get the kind of job he wanted. 

I’ve always preferred math and science to English and history. I enjoy things that are tangible and black and white, like engineering.