DECATUR - The family that goes to school together graduates together, and so it was Sunday for Ginger Artime and her son, Brian.

Mom, 45, emerged triumphant from Millikin University's winter graduation ceremony, clutching a degree in applied mathematics and posed for cap-and-gown pictures with her 25-year-old, son who earned his degree in organizational leadership.

Mature students often get their degrees through Millikin's Professional Adult Comprehensive Education Program but the Artimes like to do things differently. In their case, it was Brian Artime who used the PACE night school after working days at Archer Daniels Midland Co., where he is learning to be a commodity trader.

His mom, meanwhile, a mother of six who lives in Forsyth, found daytime classes easier as a regular student. "I started out wearing a little more professional attire, but, by the time we were done, I was in jeans and T-shirts like the rest of the students," she said.

Ginger Artime, who had put off completing her education to let husband Kevin, a dentist, finish school and to raise their family, now is teaching math at Decatur Christian School.

Her son, smiling broadly at her side while Dad snapped pictures, said graduating on the same day as Mom will be a memory to cherish: "Something really special to look back on," he added.

They were joined Sunday by more than 150 other graduates walking out of the college's Kirkland Fine Arts Center into windswept gray skies and an economy just as foreboding. That reality wasn't lost on speakers for graduation, who included new grad Hans Royal-Hedinger, who needed deep pockets to carry all his diplomas: the student from Wilmette earned a degree in music, a degree in management/international business and an international business dual degree with the ESGCI in Paris.

Quoting from Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities", Royal-Hedinger said students were faced with the best of times and the worst of times. But they really could be the best, too, in a world where good enough will no longer be good enough.

"It's a tremendous opportunity because, whether we like it or not, we will be forced to become exceptional in order to succeed," he said. "It's a kind of trial by fire thing … its really up to us to make it happen, and I think we will."

The keynote speaker was Mikel Sterling Briggs, a Millikin alumnus and chief operating officer for Franklin Park-based furniture makers, Bretford Manufacturing. He, too, said the economy was in dire straits but claimed the graduating class already had what it needed to excel: a Millikin education.

"The problem solving and communication skills that are such an important part of the education you gained here at Millikin will help you overcome whatever challenge is thrown your way," he added.

treid@herald-review.com|421-7977