Gordon State College graduate Christa Lee didn't have to look into a sea of faces to find her mother during graduation ceremonies held Friday. She just needed to look a few rows away.

Christa was awarded an associate degree in nursing while her mother, Edna Ivey, earned an associate of science degree with emphasis on criminal justice.

They celebrated with each other and family including Edna's sister, Katherine Davis who will graduate Spring '16 with a degree in Human Services.

"We know all about what it means to be an adult learner," said Edna who retired from the Georgia Department of Transportation several years ago. "I'm just not ready to stop learning."

She hopes to go to work in law enforcement while her daughter hopes to eventually work in neonatal care in third world countries.

"This has been a tough couple of years but having her around helped," Christa said of her mother. "We even had a class together. I got an A and she got a B."

The mother-daughter grads were two of 277 students who completed their degree requirements to graduate Fall semester and two of 160 who participated in Friday's ceremony.

Past Gordon President Lawrence Weill addressed the group of graduates, family and friends noting the words of philosopher-songwriter Bob Dylan.

"He not busy being born is busy dying…" Weill said. "You have been busy being born at GSC in a way you really could not have foreseen. But now you are here, and now it is time to choose your new history."

Christa later joined 31 of her fellow nursing grads for a pinning ceremony and the lighting of their Nightingale lamps.