NC mother and daughter graduate from nursing school 13 years apart

Dr. Dorothy Miller gave birth to her daughter at the age of 15. Despite the odds against her, she went on to nursing school, getting her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), then a masters degree, then a PhD.

On May 7, her daughter Shaquita Bandy graduated from nursing school at St. Andrews University – a nursing program Miller created. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago when the women realized they obtained their BSN degrees the very same day, exactly 13 years apart.

“It is interesting because we were at the car wash, washing the car, and her degree was laying in the trunk,” Bandy said. “So I opened it and I said, 'Did you know that you graduated on May 7?' And she was like, 'Really?' Then I opened mine and I was like, 'We graduated on the same day!'”

Miller grew up in the rural town of Pinetops, North Carolina. When she got pregnant as a teenager, her resources were limited.

“We came from a lower socioeconomic background,” Miller said. “When I got pregnant, I was in ninth grade.”

Miller credits her own mother for helping her survive.

“I had a wonderful mother when I was going through all that at 15,” Miller said. “Her goal for me was to not stop school. I had my child on a Friday, and my mother made sure I was in school that next Monday.”

Multiple people, including her father and high school guidance counselor, told Miller not to expect much from a career, but Miller knew she wanted to help people in a big way.

“I'm just one of those stubborn kinds of people,” she said. “I knew that I wanted to help people, growing up I wanted to either be a nurse or a police officer.”

After high school, Miller left 5-year-old Shaquita in the care of her mother and joined the military.

“She helped me support her and take care of her as much as possible,” Miller said. “Even when I went into the military, she kept her until I was able to come back and get her.”

When Miller got out of the military, she knew she was ready for nursing school. Miller worked two jobs while going to school full-time so she could support Bandy and her other children.

“I got my associate degree, and then I got my bachelor's degree and my master's, and then I got my PhD, and then another master's,” Miller laughed. “So I haven't stopped going to school at any point.”

Miller, now the department chair of health sciences at St. Andrews, calls her higher education an equalizer.

"Coming from a lower socioeconomic background ... I knew that education was a path for me,” she said.

In 2021, Miller launched the first nursing school at St. Andrews University in Laurinburg. Amazingly, Bandy was the very first nursing student to graduate from the program.

The graduates were called alphabetically by last name.

“So she was the first one they called across the stage for nursing,” Miller said.

Today, Bandy works in the intensive care unit at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst. She aims to be a skilled yet compassionate nurse, respecting and honoring her patients while giving them the best care possible.

“These are really sick people,” she said. “So you have to make sure you're doing what you can to get them back to a standard of living.”

Bandy said nursing school was a challenging but rewarding journey with her mother at her side. She even sat in a few classes her mother taught.

“She gave me everything I needed to make sure I'm successful,” Bandy said. “You can imagine the pressure, though, coming through a program that was just established by your mother, being the first one to graduate, trying to make sure that you keep the program going … it’s tremendous pressure, but they say pressure makes diamonds.”

Miller is currently running for the North Carolina Board of Nursing. Her biggest goal is to address a shortage of health providers in rural towns and to work to recruit and retain nurses in places like Cumberland and Scotland counties.

Looking back at her accomplishments, she said she will never forget her 15-year-old self and the struggles she overcame.

“Nobody should be able to tell you what your future is,” Miller said. “What some people saw as a mistake, having a child so young, to me was a catalyst. I think that if I hadn't been given the opportunity to have that child, I wouldn't have accomplished what I did. By having her, it pushed me to do something outside of me so that I could have a better future for her.”

Miller hopes, as a mother and a teacher, she can make a lasting impact on her children and students.

“That has always been my goal, for my kids to do better than I did,” she said. “And people telling you you can't do something or you're not qualified to me is just an open door to say, let me show you.”