Trucking grandma earns degree while OTR with her husband thanks to a challenge from her college-bound grandson.
63-year-old Robyn Roberts has been a trucker alongside her husband, Tim, for the last 15 years driving for the company they own together. However, thanks to a challenge from her grandson, Roberts has been able to educate herself while OTR, and recently earned her Bachelor’s degree.
After highschool, Roberts went to college but dropped out after two years. She then took a job in the legal field and raised her kids, but once they were grown, she got into trucking. It wasn’t until she encouraged her grandson to attend college after high school that she received a challenge she could not deny.
“He said ‘well I’ll go if you go’ and I said ‘well I can go back to school,’” Roberts said. “God does not give me a spirit of fear so if there’s a challenge and I’m up for it, I’m just going to go for it.”
And so began four years of studying – mostly from the truck. “90% of my SNHU (Southern New Hampshire University) education was in the cab of that semi-truck. While we were getting loaded, while we were getting unloaded,” Robyn explains. “If I had a discussion board that was due. we were traveling down the road and I would whip into a rest area, and say ok, honey, I need two hours.”
The mother of 8, grandmother of 33, and great grandmother of 12 recently completed her degree, and even walked at graduation.
“In February I will be 26 years clean from drugs. I mean I’ve had a very challenging past. and I’ve come from homeless and helpless to where I am now and serving others and giving that back is what I want to do”, Robyn says. “As long as you take that one step and take that next step, you’d be surprised how far you are at the end when you turn around and look back that you’d say I’ve come a long way, and I have truly come a very long way.”