Hard work leads to educational success for mother, sons
Lead Summary
By
Caitlin Forsha-crforsha@gmail.com
While many local families are attending high school and college graduations this spring, one Highland County family has triple the reason to celebrate, as a mother and two of her sons are each completing their respective educations at three separate schools.
Kathy Henry of Greenfield will complete her Juris Doctor degree at Capital University Law School at the end of July. Her youngest of five sons, Tommy, received his high school diploma on Friday, May 20 from McClain High School, while her fourth son, Sam, graduated Sunday, May 8 from The Ohio State University with a bachelor’s of science degree in neuroscience.
Although the three Henry scholars are completing three different levels of education, each of them have the same commitment to hard work, including balancing a full-time job and law school for Kathy and numerous extracurricular activities and academic honors for her two youngest sons.
Tommy graduated with honors and the presidential award from McClain, where he was involved in numerous activities. He was a member of the National Honor Society for two years, served as student council president, drama club president and performed in the symphonic and show choirs and several stage productions.
Tommy was a four-year member of the Spanish Club and was in the MHS marching band for four years, serving as field commander his senior year.
Tommy is also known for his athletic accomplishments. He was a one-year member of the varsity track team and a four-year member of the varsity soccer and swimming teams at MHS, for which he was recognized earlier this year for breaking a 52-year-old school record in the 200 freestyle event.
Tommy is going to Ohio State University in the fall and plans to study engineering.
“I’ve obviously heard a lot about [OSU] from Sam,” Tommy said. “I have visited, and it’s an exceptional campus.
“There’s lots of opportunity, and I’ll see where it takes me. I’m majoring in engineering, but I’m undecided on which branch.”
Tommy’s mother said that she is confident in Tommy’s future.
“Tommy did graduate with a 4.0 GPA and lots of honors,” Kathy said. “He’s done really well. He has wide-open opportunities. He’ll do good things.”
Completing his undergraduate degree this spring, Sam graduated summa cum laude with honors research distinction.
At Ohio State, Sam was involved in the indoor soccer club for four years, serving as vice president one year and president one year. The group he was most passionate about was Sustained Dialogue, of which he was a founding member.
“Sustained Dialogue is a group that seeks to effect social change by getting people of all different backgrounds to talk about their identities,” he said. “It seeks to use relationships as the key to conflict resolution.
“I was a cofounder of that. I joined right when it started, my freshman year, and at different times I served as the treasurer and as a moderator, so I was one of the people facilitating the conversations. Over the past two years, I’ve been the head moderator, so I coordinated the other moderators and sort of oversaw the weekly dialogues.”
Sam also joined Mortarboard, a senior class honor society, and served as its inductions chair, helping to organize the induction ceremony.
Sam studied abroad twice during his time at OSU, including “Semester at Sea,” where he lived on a ship during the summer of 2013 following his freshman year.
“I took classes while visiting nine countries in the Mediterranean, including northern Africa and southern Europe,” Sam said.
Sam also conducted research “on and off” throughout his college education, including during his studying abroad.
“I did an independent research project last summer in Okinawa, Japan, looking at the effects of the indigenous Okinawans’ spirituality on health and wellness over their life span,” Sam said. “I was there for nine weeks last summer, and the research I did there ultimately resulted in my honors undergrad thesis that I finished up at the end of April.”
Sam will be returning to Japan this summer through the Critical Language Scholarship Program and plans to live in Columbus after he returns. He said that he has “no concrete plans” yet but hopes to go to graduate school in the future.
Kathy, who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Virginia Tech and a master’s in religious education from Loyola University in New Orleans, attended the four-year evening program at Capital University Law School while working full-time.
“My progress through law school has been slower at times, which is why it’s going to take me a little bit longer to finish,” Kathy said.
Kathy works as a consultant to Loyola Press, an educational publishing company focusing on the Catholic faith. She has been employed with the company for eight years. Kathy said that she has worked with the Catholic ministry for 25 years and plans to continue to do so.
“The last 25 years really have been in religious education work with the Catholic Church. My law degree is just a continuation of my work with the church,” Kathy said. “It’s just something that adds to what I’m already doing. I have no plans to branch out on my own in a new direction. It’s more of just adding another tool to my toolbox.”
Despite their accolades and the unique situation of having three family members graduating in the same year, the Henrys insist that their accomplishments are simply the result of hard work and determination, with help along the way from family and friends. Kathy said that her husband and three older sons have been supportive of all three of them throughout their respective educations.
“We all have support of other family members,” Kathy said. “My husband has supported me doing this, and I think the kids both have strong support networks, both within their families and within their friends, to achieve and to work hard. I think that’s been important.”
In addition to being supportive, Sam and Tommy said that being the youngest two children in a family of five boys – all of whom are McClain High School alumni – was also motivational.
“There are five of us in total, and in high school, at least, having three older brothers who were all pretty great made me want to work hard,” Sam said. “I think that carried over into college.”
Tommy said that following Sam – whose accomplishments at MHS included being named a National Merit Scholar, acting in several stage productions and being a member of the varsity soccer and track teams – spurred him to do well at McClain.
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“I would say that going into high school, following [Sam], captain of everything and leader of everything, was a little bit of a push,” Tommy said.
Sam said that his friends and classmates at Ohio State also encouraged him, either directly or indirectly, to work hard.
“I definitely surrounded myself at Ohio State with people who all worked hard and were doing incredible things,” Sam said. “I think that also motivated me to do more.”
The Henrys also spoke about living in Greenfield and how living in the community affected their education. Although Kathy is originally from Virginia, and her husband, Dr. William Henry, is from Philadelphia, she said that coming to Highland County was “just fate.” Her husband has been a professor of biology at Southern State Community College for over 20 years, and they have raised their family in southern Ohio, moving to Greenfield in 1996.
“He had actually been working in Washington Court House area, and we had been living in Fayette County when he took the job at Southern State,” Kathy said.
Attending McClain High School and growing up in Greenfield made Sam even more determined to succeed, as Ohio State enrolled over 65,000 students in 2015, according to their website – over 12 times the number of people who live in the village of Greenfield.
“I think coming from Greenfield, a small town, helped me be successful in college,” Sam said. “When I came into college, I was feeling at a little bit of a disadvantage because I didn’t have AP courses, and I was kind of a step back from people who came from high schools that offered more chances to get ahead before college. It was sort of like playing catch-up when I got there, or at least that’s how it felt at first.
“Because I had to work harder to catch up, I think I just kind of kept going from there. I think that’s honestly an advantage. If you have the motivation and the work ethic, I think that’s an advantage of coming from a place like this, because you have to work – or at least I felt I did – to pull myself level with other students, and you can go on from there.”
The Henrys said that they hope everyone knows that even if you are an “nontraditional” student, or if you come from a small town like Greenfield, you can still pursue your dreams of higher education.
“You can come from Highland County and go do really cool things,” Sam said.
“You can be old and do cool things, too,” Kathy added.
“You can up and decide what you want to do with your life at any point, if you want to put in the time and effort and work hard,” Sam said. “I recognize that everyone has a different amount of privilege, but I think it does say something that all three of us have done this, and I think a lot of that has just been through really hard work and having the motivation to do it.
“Being from small-town Ohio is not a reason for you to think you can’t do what you want and succeed at what you want to do.”
Kathy Henry of Greenfield will complete her Juris Doctor degree at Capital University Law School at the end of July. Her youngest of five sons, Tommy, received his high school diploma on Friday, May 20 from McClain High School, while her fourth son, Sam, graduated Sunday, May 8 from The Ohio State University with a bachelor’s of science degree in neuroscience.
Although the three Henry scholars are completing three different levels of education, each of them have the same commitment to hard work, including balancing a full-time job and law school for Kathy and numerous extracurricular activities and academic honors for her two youngest sons.
Tommy graduated with honors and the presidential award from McClain, where he was involved in numerous activities. He was a member of the National Honor Society for two years, served as student council president, drama club president and performed in the symphonic and show choirs and several stage productions.
Tommy was a four-year member of the Spanish Club and was in the MHS marching band for four years, serving as field commander his senior year.
Tommy is also known for his athletic accomplishments. He was a one-year member of the varsity track team and a four-year member of the varsity soccer and swimming teams at MHS, for which he was recognized earlier this year for breaking a 52-year-old school record in the 200 freestyle event.
Tommy is going to Ohio State University in the fall and plans to study engineering.
“I’ve obviously heard a lot about [OSU] from Sam,” Tommy said. “I have visited, and it’s an exceptional campus.
“There’s lots of opportunity, and I’ll see where it takes me. I’m majoring in engineering, but I’m undecided on which branch.”
Tommy’s mother said that she is confident in Tommy’s future.
“Tommy did graduate with a 4.0 GPA and lots of honors,” Kathy said. “He’s done really well. He has wide-open opportunities. He’ll do good things.”
Completing his undergraduate degree this spring, Sam graduated summa cum laude with honors research distinction.
At Ohio State, Sam was involved in the indoor soccer club for four years, serving as vice president one year and president one year. The group he was most passionate about was Sustained Dialogue, of which he was a founding member.
“Sustained Dialogue is a group that seeks to effect social change by getting people of all different backgrounds to talk about their identities,” he said. “It seeks to use relationships as the key to conflict resolution.
“I was a cofounder of that. I joined right when it started, my freshman year, and at different times I served as the treasurer and as a moderator, so I was one of the people facilitating the conversations. Over the past two years, I’ve been the head moderator, so I coordinated the other moderators and sort of oversaw the weekly dialogues.”
Sam also joined Mortarboard, a senior class honor society, and served as its inductions chair, helping to organize the induction ceremony.
Sam studied abroad twice during his time at OSU, including “Semester at Sea,” where he lived on a ship during the summer of 2013 following his freshman year.
“I took classes while visiting nine countries in the Mediterranean, including northern Africa and southern Europe,” Sam said.
Sam also conducted research “on and off” throughout his college education, including during his studying abroad.
“I did an independent research project last summer in Okinawa, Japan, looking at the effects of the indigenous Okinawans’ spirituality on health and wellness over their life span,” Sam said. “I was there for nine weeks last summer, and the research I did there ultimately resulted in my honors undergrad thesis that I finished up at the end of April.”
Sam will be returning to Japan this summer through the Critical Language Scholarship Program and plans to live in Columbus after he returns. He said that he has “no concrete plans” yet but hopes to go to graduate school in the future.
Kathy, who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Virginia Tech and a master’s in religious education from Loyola University in New Orleans, attended the four-year evening program at Capital University Law School while working full-time.
“My progress through law school has been slower at times, which is why it’s going to take me a little bit longer to finish,” Kathy said.
Kathy works as a consultant to Loyola Press, an educational publishing company focusing on the Catholic faith. She has been employed with the company for eight years. Kathy said that she has worked with the Catholic ministry for 25 years and plans to continue to do so.
“The last 25 years really have been in religious education work with the Catholic Church. My law degree is just a continuation of my work with the church,” Kathy said. “It’s just something that adds to what I’m already doing. I have no plans to branch out on my own in a new direction. It’s more of just adding another tool to my toolbox.”
Despite their accolades and the unique situation of having three family members graduating in the same year, the Henrys insist that their accomplishments are simply the result of hard work and determination, with help along the way from family and friends. Kathy said that her husband and three older sons have been supportive of all three of them throughout their respective educations.
“We all have support of other family members,” Kathy said. “My husband has supported me doing this, and I think the kids both have strong support networks, both within their families and within their friends, to achieve and to work hard. I think that’s been important.”
In addition to being supportive, Sam and Tommy said that being the youngest two children in a family of five boys – all of whom are McClain High School alumni – was also motivational.
“There are five of us in total, and in high school, at least, having three older brothers who were all pretty great made me want to work hard,” Sam said. “I think that carried over into college.”
Tommy said that following Sam – whose accomplishments at MHS included being named a National Merit Scholar, acting in several stage productions and being a member of the varsity soccer and track teams – spurred him to do well at McClain.
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“I would say that going into high school, following [Sam], captain of everything and leader of everything, was a little bit of a push,” Tommy said.
Sam said that his friends and classmates at Ohio State also encouraged him, either directly or indirectly, to work hard.
“I definitely surrounded myself at Ohio State with people who all worked hard and were doing incredible things,” Sam said. “I think that also motivated me to do more.”
The Henrys also spoke about living in Greenfield and how living in the community affected their education. Although Kathy is originally from Virginia, and her husband, Dr. William Henry, is from Philadelphia, she said that coming to Highland County was “just fate.” Her husband has been a professor of biology at Southern State Community College for over 20 years, and they have raised their family in southern Ohio, moving to Greenfield in 1996.
“He had actually been working in Washington Court House area, and we had been living in Fayette County when he took the job at Southern State,” Kathy said.
Attending McClain High School and growing up in Greenfield made Sam even more determined to succeed, as Ohio State enrolled over 65,000 students in 2015, according to their website – over 12 times the number of people who live in the village of Greenfield.
“I think coming from Greenfield, a small town, helped me be successful in college,” Sam said. “When I came into college, I was feeling at a little bit of a disadvantage because I didn’t have AP courses, and I was kind of a step back from people who came from high schools that offered more chances to get ahead before college. It was sort of like playing catch-up when I got there, or at least that’s how it felt at first.
“Because I had to work harder to catch up, I think I just kind of kept going from there. I think that’s honestly an advantage. If you have the motivation and the work ethic, I think that’s an advantage of coming from a place like this, because you have to work – or at least I felt I did – to pull myself level with other students, and you can go on from there.”
The Henrys said that they hope everyone knows that even if you are an “nontraditional” student, or if you come from a small town like Greenfield, you can still pursue your dreams of higher education.
“You can come from Highland County and go do really cool things,” Sam said.
“You can be old and do cool things, too,” Kathy added.
“You can up and decide what you want to do with your life at any point, if you want to put in the time and effort and work hard,” Sam said. “I recognize that everyone has a different amount of privilege, but I think it does say something that all three of us have done this, and I think a lot of that has just been through really hard work and having the motivation to do it.
“Being from small-town Ohio is not a reason for you to think you can’t do what you want and succeed at what you want to do.”