Tricia Romaine is the perfect example of a person who seems to be able to do it all. At the very least, she must be quite a juggler.
Romaine, who is majoring in family and consumer science, has been selected to give the student address during NDSU’s Commencement ceremonies Saturday, Dec. 19, at 10 a.m. in the Fargodome. The 30-year-old wife, mother, student and volunteer will represent her class with a talk titled “Things We Learn As We Look Back.”
“My message is that it is not going to be easy when we get out into the big, real world,” Romaine explained. “But we’ve gotten this far, and if we put our minds to it, we are going to do great things.”
Her presentation is expected to include references to the “I think I can” attitude of the “Little Engine That Could” and children’s toys – ideas she knows a lot about as the mother of a one-year-old daughter. “I’ll talk about blocks because our education from NDSU forms the building blocks for our future,” she said.
Romaine, a graduate of Frazee, Minn., High School, is an exemplary student who carries a 4.0 grade-point average. A member of the American Association of Family and Consumer Science, she served as vice president of NDSU’s chapter in 2008. She was a scholarship and grant recipient from the Philanthropic Education Organization, and she received eight scholarships through the College of Human Development and Education.
In addition, she is a graduate gemologist at Wimmer’s Diamonds in West Acres Regional Shopping Center, serves as a volunteer youth group leader at her church and is student teaching this semester. Her student teaching experience has been with teacher Julie Hawley at Fargo North High School and teacher Dyann Fladland at Fargo’s Discovery Middle School.
“I’ve worked retail for 14 years, so it’s been interesting and challenging to come back to college. I feel I bring a different perspective on real life and how the world can be,” Romaine said. “This is exciting and quite an honor. It’s fun to be an older than average student and be chosen to represent the school, because I think of the college as mostly 18- to 22-year-olds.”
In a letter of nomination, Patty Corwin of NDSU’s sociology department described Romaine as a “good role model, motivator and a wonderful example of a slightly older-than-average student who has excelled in school while balancing her life between classes, family, job and volunteer obligations.”
Mari Borr, assistant professor in the School of Education, praised Romaine’s intelligence, maturity and composure. “In class, she was a prepared and active participant,” Borr wrote in a nomination letter. “Her cooperating teachers have had nothing but glowing remarks about her student teaching performance.”
Romaine plans a career as a secondary teacher, with a goal to find a teaching job within 60 miles of Fargo-Moorhead. In five years, she plans to pursue a master’s degree.
“I want to continue to learn; that is so important,” she said. “I just love to learn.”
Romaine, her husband, Aaron, and daughter, Nyah, live in Fargo.