A Lehighton area family is living out its passion for education with eight graduation ceremonies in 14 days in four states.

The Laible family of five - Greg, Jennifer, Sarah, Anna, and Ethan - traveled to Dallas, Texas, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, home to Lehighton, and finally to Boston, Massachusetts, from May 11 to May 26.

Greg, a pastor since 1999, joined a rural pastor cohort in February 2019 at Dallas Theological Seminary. His goal was to continue to “sharpen his sword” in leading a small-town church with most of his 10 courses requiring him to read 3000-plus pages and write 30- to 50-plus pages of papers.

His doctoral thesis was entitled “The Spiritual Health of Rural Pastors in the Crucible of Church Conflict.”

He was the first Laible to graduate in May, but because of the only schedule conflict in the family’s graduation ceremonies, he was only able to attend his Commencement Chapel (Graduation 1) and Texas BBQ with his professors.

Greg and Jennifer flew directly from Texas to meet up with her mom who had flown with Ethan from Pennsylvania for Sarah’s ceremony.

Sarah, a senior at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduated magna cum laude from the Gillings School of Public Health on May 13, majoring in health policy and management.

The second ceremony for the family, she earned highest honors for her senior thesis, entitled “An Evaluation of Shared Action Plans within an Integrated Care Model in North Carolina.”

She double minored in Asian Studies and in Honors Carolina’s minor in Medicine, Literature, and Culture while working in the Bonner Leaders Program with the Boys & Girls Club of Durham and Orange counties and becoming a Buckley Public Service Scholar.

Early the next day, they would all meet up with Anna (who had been driven south by friends after a senior outing), Greg’s parents (who had driven in from Atlanta), and extended family for graduation 3.

The next day, which happened to be both Mother’s Day and Greg’s birthday also, was UNC’s commencement ceremony.

After that, family from Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania went back north to celebrate Anna’s graduation, and her accomplishments.

Anna graduated from high school and community college. In Pennsylvania, a student is required to graduate in that order, so her diploma from the Laible Homeschool Academy was presented to her (since her coursework was complete) shortly before her Lehigh Carbon Community College ceremony in the PPL Center.

Anna graduated magna cum laude (Graduation #4) with her associate degree in communications. Later that week, Anna presented her senior thesis titled “Title IX’s Impact both now and in the Future.” Her home-school academy then had their high school graduation (number 5) where additional family and friends from Maryland and Tennessee joined her.

Ethan, also home-schooled, celebrated completing his mandatory statewide tests with his own graduation (number 6) in between schoolwork, Franklin Township Little League games, Lehigh Valley Prospects travel baseball tournaments, Lehighton Area Soccer games, and track practices. He’s playing on the FT District All Star 11-12 year old team after he wraps up his annual track meet and last 2 soccer tournaments of the season.

Jennifer graduated from Harvard University on May 25. She earned her Masters of Liberal Arts in Management, with 2 certificates in nonprofit management and innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition, her GPA qualified her for the Dean’s List Academic Achievement Award. The Harvard University wide graduation (number 7) included bagpipers leading the school’s procession into the Harvard Yard and all the schools’ commencement being called to order by the local constable.

The three-hour ceremony was followed by the Harvard Extension School graduation (number 8). Jennifer was extra proud to be one of only 8% of the 13,000 HES enrolled students to finish their degree.

Dr. Laible is headed into a new space of corporate chaplaincy, while Jennifer is expanding her educational consulting business, All Star Educational Consulting.

Sarah is joining Teach for America before heading to graduate school for her Master’s in Public Health.

Anna won the full-ride academic Innovation Scholarship at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and plans on majoring in media and journalism starting in August. Ethan’s goal is to head to middle school and continue playing the sports he loves.