The North Hardin High School graduate’s exposure to UofL classrooms started about a decade prior when her aunt, Tanisha Thompson ’06, ’14, hauled her along to her courses in Strickler Hall and elsewhere.

Now Hampton’s aunt and the rest of her extended family will be celebrating with her May 7, when she graduates with an undergraduate degree in political science and English and with a long-term dream of working in Middle Eastern foreign relations for the U.S. State Department.

With faith, the support of many and with the love of other special people she lost during her four-year college journey, she has made it.

“By the grace of God, this degree – I did it for them,” Hampton said.

Hampton, born to teenagers, grew up in the military town of Radcliff, Kentucky. She was adopted by her grandparents at age 17 and watched over by many other relatives.

“My aunt took a big responsibility in my life,” she said. “When she went to college, she made an effort to make sure I was exposed to (higher) education. That influenced a lot of my decisions.”

Both Thompson, her aunt, and her husband earned UofL degrees. When it was Hampton’s turn to call Belknap Campus home, she earned full-tuition scholarships and found new circles of support in the Society of Porter Scholars and the McConnell Center as well as Zeta Phi Beta sorority.

“Definitely coming back to UofL was very familiar,” Hampton said. “I really enjoyed that.”

As she settled into college life, she became increasingly interested in political science and international relations, minoring in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies and adding Arabic language courses to broaden her skills.

Hampton earned scholarships for international study, visited Israel and Pakistan, and won a Critical Language Scholarship, sponsored by the State Department, for summer travel to Ibri, Oman, to study Arabic.

“I love the Middle East,” Hampton said. “I had a good time.”

But once she returned to the United States to start her 2019 fall semester, a series of tragedies began.

Starting with the unexpected death of her father, she lost four immediate family members over a series of months, including one relative the week before her spring finals. Then COVID-19 affected Hampton’s aunt’s mother-in-law, who had taught her to how to cook and influenced her life; at the beginning of Hampton’s senior year, she too was gone.

Under the circumstances, others might have quit on college, but Hampton felt encouragement from many fronts, including her school circles and her larger family.

Her sorority sisters have helped a lot, as have her McConnell Center leaders and fellow scholars.

“And if not for the Porter (Scholars) community, I don’t know what I would have done,” she said.

She thought it important to stick with her educational plan and not lose momentum by stepping away. “Once you get a cadence going, you need to grind it out,” she said.

“I want people to know that while the tunnel is dark, there is light on the other side. Finish if you can – do it for everyone.”

Hampton also gives credit to many faculty and staff members who supported her personally and pushed her academically. With help from several, ranging from her adviser, Luke Buckman, to her Arabic teacher, Khaldoun Almousily, to McConnell Center Director Gary Gregg, she was able to chart and stay her course at the university.

Professors David Anderson and Karen Chandler, with their expertise in African American literature, guided her also. And when she was applying for competitive travel scholarships, she received helpful guidance and editing assistance from Bethany Smith in the Office of National and International Scholarship Opportunities.

With COVID constraints derailing international travel plans, Hampton intends to work for a year before pursuing graduate studies the following year in diplomacy or international relations. But before that, she’ll be celebrating commencement with “a pretty big shebang” with the rest of her family, now that most have been fully vaccinated.

Does she have any advice for other students discouraged by personal hurdles on their way to graduation?

“I would tell them, ‘At the end of every storm, there is a sunny day’,” Hampton said. “Ultimately, you have to pick it up and keep moving.”

While at UofL, she had a baby born in 2000 who today is a sophomore at UofL. She met and married her husband, Jeremy. From 2000 to 2004, five close family members died, and the grief was overwhelming. In addition, Burrell was diagnosed with a condition defined as “like multiple sclerosis” that had her moving from class to class in a motorized wheelchair.

But at that 2004 commencement, Burrell was so excited. She steadied herself with a cane while her then-3-year-old son, Lorenzo, toddled along beside her. When her health took a sudden downturn, she had to put off the one class she still had to take to earn her degree.

Slowly, as the years passed and her family grew to four children while she worked full-time at Humana, her last class “turned into many,” she said.

Still, she was determined to finish. “I kept going back over the years.” she said. “As requirements changed, I kept going. When I owed tuition, I paid what I could until my balance was fulfilled and immediately, I re-enrolled.”

After all, when she arrived at UofL in 1999 as “an 18-year-old full of promise,” she was the recipient of a prestigious MLK Endowment of Peace award and a Woodford R. Porter Scholarship. She joined Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. in 2002. Her father, Kenny Rowan, had “put Cardinals in my crib,” she said. 

In 2019, she arranged with her College of Arts & Sciences advisor to take her final three classes. “I completed all the steps to start classes in January 2020,” she said. “During that first class, Covid-19 hit, and we had to move quickly to virtual classes. Including that class, I have taken the last three classes I needed to graduate, one per term, during Covid.”

And she did it despite working from home and having four children at home who  each had individual virtual learning needs: A freshman in high school (14-year-old Ajani Nicole), a second-grader (8-year-old Hayden Reese), a pre-schooler (5-year-old Katherine Joy) and Lorenzo, who lived both on campus and at home.

In addition to her parents, Burrell, who grew up in Owensboro, found inspiration in Ricky Jones, chair of the Pan-African Studies department, who was her first Black teacher.

“I took every single class that he taught,” she said. “Now my son has started taking his classes and it makes me proud that Dr. Jones sees me in Lorenzo — my legacy.”

Burrell’s next challenge will be a master’s degree (first she has to decide among public health, Pan-African Studies or Women and Gender Studies) and eventually a Ph.D.

“UofL helped prepare me for life,” she said. “Over the last 11 months, UofL has helped me show my children that Mommy, now 39, never gave up, no matter what.”

Participants will see — via video — many elements of a traditional commencement. Pomp and circumstance will play. Administrators will appear in cap and gown. The president, provost, deans and students will deliver their comments and congratulations.

And every graduate will have their moment — akin to crossing the stage — where their name, degree and honors appear on the video. Names will be announced audibly and, if a photo or special message was submitted before the deadline, that too will appear.

Because the event follows a traditional format and recognizes each student, it differs from last spring’s web-based celebration that honored nearly 3,200 May graduates. Those May graduates, as well as the summer and winter graduates, will be included in the upcoming virtual commencement because organizers wanted to give special recognition to all 2020 graduates.

Some hallmarks of the upcoming event include:

• There will be 12 separate web-based ceremonies, one for each of the university’s colleges and schools. That keeps the ceremonies to a manageable size and enables students to graduate with their classmates.
• Since spring, summer and fall 2020 graduates are all included, it will be one of the largest commencements in university history. More than 5,300 scholars are expected to be recognized.
• 2020 graduates can take part in any future in-person commencement if they wish to do so.

Planning for virtual commencement began months ago after university officials determined an in-person event, even with modifications, would pose a significant health risk. The decision — called “gut wrenching” by one administrator — came after weeks of consultations with students, health and infectious disease experts, government leaders and others.

“First and foremost, we had to protect our students, their families, campus community and larger community,” said Dean of Students Michael Mardis.

Mardis points out that if an in-person ceremony had been planned, escalating COVID 19 cases and new restrictions would have forced a cancellation.

Senior political science and history major Zach Pennington, who is part of the Student Government Association and a member of virtual commencement planning team, said virtual commencement is “the reality of this year.”

Even though he is not one of the graduates, he plans to watch the celebration.

“To me, the most important part of graduation will be the celebratory aspect with friends and family. Virtual commencement provides just that. It is an opportunity to celebrate accomplishments in the safest way possible while also thanking the people who have helped you along the way,” Pennington said.

More information can be found at . Links to the 12 school-based ceremonies will not appear until Dec. 12 and will remain available for viewing after the event.