Nearly 30 Years Later: Shaunett Rivers is finally ready to walk across the Commencement stage

When Shaunett Rivers received her cap and gown in the mail from Houston City College (HCC), she immediately put it on. Standing in that regalia, Rivers felt something she had been waiting nearly three decades to feel: a deep, undeniable sense of pride and relief. 

On Friday, May 8, Rivers will walk across the stage to receive her Associate of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies.

Shaunett Rivers Rivers, who grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, spent more than two decades building a career as a medical assistant and raised two daughters. When her youngest graduated from high school and her oldest from college, Rivers decided it was time for a change. 

“I was done. I raised my kids, and it was my turn,” she explained. “So, I stepped out on faith and said, ‘Wherever you take me, I’ll make it there’.”

Rivers wrote five cities on different pieces of paper—Atlanta, Las Vegas, Memphis, Phoenix and Houston—shook them in a hat and pulled out Houston.

She arrived in Houston in 2021 and landed a job as a medical assistant at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women in the Texas Medical Center.

In 2022, she enrolled at HCC. Rivers hadn’t been in a classroom for decades and struggled balancing a full-time job, evening classes and the steep learning curve of returning to school. After stepping away following her first semester, a classmate encouraged Rivers to return, and she did. 

She found her rhythm through the HCC Global Online College’s asynchronous courses, which let her study on her own schedule. 

“Online anytime is the best thing since sliced bread because I was able to work and take classes without being rushed or stressed out about school,” Rivers said. “It made my life much easier.” 

Now that she’s about to earn her degree, Rivers doesn’t want to stop there. She plans to meet with an advisor at HCC to chart a path toward a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management. She wants to teach and mentor aspiring medical assistants—giving back the kind of support that once carried her through. 

“I am so proud of myself. This is not my ending. This is just my beginning.”  

Find your new beginning at HCC. Registration for summer and fall classes is now open at hccs.edu/apply.