At Texas A&M Central, the halls of higher learning held more than just lectures and late-night study sessions, they held the footsteps of a determined mom who turned her dream into a degree (well, four of them).
Jessica Caldwell, a mother of four, spent over a decade cleaning those very classrooms overnight, walking more than 26,000 miles behind a custodian’s cart. But what makes her story magical isn’t just the distance she covered, it’s the journey she made along the way.
“I was in charge of cleaning the classrooms and two of the buildings out of the three that we have at A&M Central Texas,” Caldwell shared. “A couple of them actually have computers in them. So I was actually able to work on my homework or my assignments during my lunch break.”
By day, she sat in the same rooms she scrubbed spotless by night, transforming mop buckets into milestones and late shifts into stepping stones. Her work schedule made earning a traditional teaching degree nearly impossible, but Caldwell found a workaround, thanks to the support of the university and professors who saw her potential.
She didn’t just earn a diploma, she stacked them. Caldwell has completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees while raising four kids and working full-time. Now, she’s just one step away from earning her teaching credentials.
“Just be persistent as far as continuing on something that you want to achieve,” she said. “A lot of people that have a job that they think that they don’t matter in, they actually do really matter.”
And if anyone ever doubted that determination can shine through the quiet corners of a university hallway, Jessica Caldwell just proved otherwise, with a mop in one hand and a master’s degree in the other.
- From Unwanted to Unstoppable: Chewy the Shih Tzu Finds His Forever Family in a Senior Living Center - September 18, 2025
- Teen Who Started Reading Program During Pandemic Still Brings Joy to Special Needs Kids Five Years Later - September 18, 2025
- Uber Ride Turns Into a Life-Changing Friendship That’s Still Going Strong Seven Years Later - September 18, 2025
