Still Learning, Still Leading: A Veteran Educator's Journey to a Master's Degree at UCM

Meet Debra “Deb” Demel — a veteran secondary school educator with over 30 years of classroom experience, and now a proud member of UCM’s Class of 2025. At an age when many are thinking about retirement, Deb is earning her master’s degree in Human Development and Family Science — not for a promotion or a title, but for the joy of learning and the example it sets for her students. “I’ve always wanted to get my master’s,” she said. “It wasn’t about anyone else — it was unfinished business.”