Two years after her oldest daughter, Zoey Miller ’14, walked across the stage of Bluffton University’s Sommer Center to receive her bachelor’s degree, Robin Pohl followed in her daughter’s footsteps.

Pohl, a 2016 degree-completion graduate, came to Bluffton to earn her bachelor’s in organizational management as a working adult. 

“I promised myself once Zoey and her sister, Quincy, were established and were certain to be college graduates, then it could be my turn,” said Pohl, an executive assistant at The Ohio State University Lima.

And she hasn’t stopped. After graduating, Pohl enrolled in Bluffton’s MBA program. She is now entering her second year.

“I am proud of her. She talked about wanting to go back to school for a while,” said Miller. “She reached her dream of getting a bachelor’s degree, and now she’s going on to get her master’s degree as well.”

While they are both Bluffton graduates, Miller chose the university first. As an undergraduate student studying social work, she appreciated the flexibility of Bluffton’s course schedule and its close proximity to home.

“I did the traditional route, but I was able to schedule my classes to be only two days a week because I also worked as a nanny. It was great having the ability to do both,” said Miller. “And I made lifelong friendships while I was at Bluffton.”

The one-night-a-week evening class schedule and the group-based experience made for an optimal transition back to college for Pohl. Students in both Bluffton’s degree-completion and master’s programs take their classes as a cohort, with those same students entering and graduating from the program alongside each other.

“Having the experience of going through the program together as a cohort, I am just so honored to have been among them. I had never seen such a group of hard workers as I saw in my degree-completion cohort, and, now that I’ve moved on to the MBA, I can say the very same thing of my new cohort,” said Pohl.

“I remember my first day of class as our instructor described the atmosphere of the program as feeling part of a family. We really did become a family. I’m still incredibly close to some of the people from my first cohort.”

Along with the bonds formed at Bluffton, both mother and daughter are using the skills each gained at Bluffton University to advance in their professions.

“I started my career in the foster care agency where I did my internship while at Bluffton. That experience helped me get my first job which in turn helped me get the job where I am now and where I plan to stay,” said Miller, a Recovery Housing Supervisor at Pathways Counseling Center in Ottawa.

“Absolutely I am using what I am learning. Ever since I started the MBA program I’ve been fascinated with the topics of emotional intelligence and servant leadership,” said Pohl. “That knowledge and passion has completely opened the doors to leadership for me, and now I’m hooked.”

It’s a reality that could have easily never been for Pohl who was so nervous on her first day of class she nearly turned her car around. With newfound knowledge and steadfast faith, she not only kept her car moving forward but finds herself driving full speed toward a promising future by living what she has learned.

 “I’m happy we’re both Bluffton graduates,” said Miller. Her mother could not agree more!