Married Cats Walk the Graduation Aisle

Jenna and Peter Bourland didn’t plan on graduating together. But these married Wildcats have learned that commencement, like love, can be serendipitous.

The Tucson natives – she an English major and he a sociology major – were initially surprised by the idea that they could graduate with one another.

“Not at all,” Jenna says when asked if she and Peter had always planned on graduating together. “We were going to school in Texas and on track to graduate at different times there. Then we moved back home to Tucson with the intention of finishing our degrees at the UA. We started back at different times, never expecting we’d finish together.”

From that point, the idea of the wedded couple graduating together began to take shape.

“We didn’t actually come up with the idea or expect to graduate at the same time… but we realized we could if Peter took about seven classes this past summer and fall, he worked like crazy to make it happen,” says Jenna.

And once Jenna and Peter each decided to graduate in winter, they had to decide whether they wanted to participate in the McKale commencement ceremony.

“It was hard to decide if I wanted to just do my college graduation or the McKale ceremony,” says Peter. “But it’s nice for our families. And I really wanted to graduate with Jenna.”

What a guy. Are you reading this, Jenna?

Both husband and wife agree that the sense of accomplishment has made graduation a big deal.

“Finishing something that I worked really hard to accomplish,” will be the best part of graduation, says Jenna. “For a while I was disappointed for not completing my degree in the four years right after high school. But now I like to think it’s an even greater accomplishment that I did it while juggling a full-time job, a mortgage, being married, and volunteering each week.”

“I’m excited for the ceremony to have it mark a milestone and be something that I can think back to and remember, and especially having it with my wife,” says Peter. “I’m just really excited to have that piece of paper and say I did a good job!” 

And compared to marriage, that piece of paper is a piece of cake. 

UA Commencement Site