Mother, mentor, graduate: Liberty County woman’s journey comes full circle

May 13, 2025

For LeNesha Cunningham, returning to college wasn’t just about finishing a degree, it was a homecoming. The Liberty County resident reflects on how she discovered her passions at Georgia Southern University as she prepares to receive her bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies.

Growing up in a military family, Cunningham was no stranger to moving from one city to another. The place she truly felt at home was her final childhood stop in Liberty County, where she graduated high school. She started taking college classes after graduation, but her studies were cut short when her mother became ill and she returned home to help look after her younger siblings. While caring for her family, Cunningham fell in love and married a soldier stationed at Fort Stewart. They would go on to have three children together and make their own journeys to different duty stations, but the road brought them right back to Liberty County to raise children of their own. When Cunningham learned her oldest son had special needs, she returned to college to become an even better mom.

“I realized I needed to learn some things to help me be able to raise him, so I got an associate’s degree in child development,” said Cunningham. “I really applied everything I learned there to raising my children.”

When Cunningham’s husband returned home from his fourth deployment, she went to work at Fort Stewart’s child development center and became the lead teacher. The demands of the job and home life left little time for her studies, but Cunningham never lost sight of her dream to earn a bachelor’s degree. Cunningham began looking at options to continue her education and saw that Georgia Southern’s Armstrong Campus fit her schedule perfectly. She enrolled and quickly realized she loved too many subjects to major in just one, so she selected an interdisciplinary degree with concentrations in history and communications. Cunningham believes the two topics make a great pair to bring people together.

“I really believe in talking to people and learning their stories,” said Cunningham. “People’s stories relate to their cultural identities, so that’s where history comes in. Why do people in these cultures have their particular beliefs? It helps you learn and accept someone else’s way of living.”

Cunningham puts her passion for connecting with others into practice by working with charitable organizations across her community. She has served at the YMCA for nearly a decade, helped organize blood drives, hosted parties for students who made honor roll and spoken to the county youth commission. She credits the time and support she received from her professors at Georgia Southern for her success in taking a leadership role in her hometown.

“One of the things that really helped me at Georgia Southern was building my confidence with public speaking,” said Cunningham. “I took Advanced Public Speaking and I was terrified when we had to do our own version of a Ted Talk. After I did mine, my professor encouraged me to audition for the real Ted Talk circuit. My professors really believed in me and introduced me to so much.”