Sylvia McKerracher

College Friend

“The teachers at SMC are just as excited about teaching as you are about what you’re learning.”

Sylvia describes herself best. “When you think of ‘McKerracher’ just think ‘character,’” she says with a pleased chuckle. And Sylvia’s wealth of character has rubbed off on her son, Mark, who is currently starring on Broadway in the musical Les Miserables. “When Mark was growing up, I was putting on a lot of amateur productions to raise money for a hospital,” says Sylvia. “And he’d be right there with me, running his trucks up and down the aisles.”

During WWII Sylvia joined the Waves where she ended up a drill sergeant, cracking the whip over the new recruits. And she confesses learning certain disciplinary skills which came in handy while she was raising a certain musical theater prodigy. But discipline was also a strong point of her time at SMC. “One semester I carried 19 units,” she remembers. “And I’d live at the college. Eight o’clock classes, grilled cheese for lunch, grilled cheese for dinner and then on to my six o’clock. It was real escapism for me.” But her “escapism” paid off when, at the age of 60, Sylvia became a graduate of SMC.

“That campus is truly for people of all ages,” says Sylvia. “It’s a feeling of learning, of excitement, of just walking the grounds. I made a lot of good friends there,” she continues. “Ladies my age who were just so thrilled to be a part of the school. And there’s no discrimination: whether you’re 94 or 17, you’re sharing in a common goal. And that goal is for everyone: to learn.”

Back