‘I’m going to fight’: Cancer survivor earning second master’s degree

After receiving several degrees from South Carolina State University, loyal alumna and cancer survivor Beverly Williams will walk across the stage for the first time at S.C. State’s spring commencement ceremony on Friday.

This year, Williams, 60, will receive her second master’s degree.

“I’m going to miss the comradery at S.C. State,” William said. “I’m going to miss the closeness and I’m going to miss the family environment. Even in undergrad, the professors were more than just professors, they were like family.”

Williams is a first-generation college student from Blackville. She is a former Marching 101 Band member who received her bachelor’s in elementary education in 1987 and her master’s in individual and family development in 2018.

Williams met her husband at S.C. State and had three children, who all graduated from the university as well. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she became a counselor and worked at several school districts in South Carolina.

She works as a residential counselor at the Bamberg Job Corps Center. She has served as a career and residential counselor for over 30 years. She is also a member of the American Counseling Association.

Throughout her life, Williams had to overcome many obstacles, including working and going to school full-time while undergoing numerous cancer treatments.

“I just want to share that no matter what you go through – because I went through some devastating things like death and illness – you can get through it,” Williams said.

In 2012, Williams was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Two years after being diagnosed, Williams decided to go back to S.C. State for her first master’s degree.

“After I got cancer, I decided to go back to school because I had to quit work and I was just home in the bed going back and forth with my treatments,” she said. “By 2015, I was able to go back to work, but I was still taking some classes and doing cancer treatments.

“It was just so much. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know who to turn to – my self-esteem was deflated. I was still getting treatments, being hospitalized, still getting surgeries, just different things going on medically,” she said.

During that time, Williams faced so much adversity in her master’s program and personal life, including the passing of her husband and several other family members. But she was determined not to give up.

“I had people saying, ‘You have this illness, you shouldn’t even be going to school at your age’ – I got a lot of that. And I almost gave up because I only had one paper left to do and this one professor gave me such a hard time,” she said. “My name was on the graduation list, and it was taken off two days before I was supposed to march.”

Even though Williams did not get to march when she received her first master’s degree, she still attended the commencement ceremony and was able to get her degree mailed to her.

Williams told herself that she wasn’t going to let that stop her. She was going to march across that stage one day.

“I know most people wouldn’t have put on that cap and gown and gone out on that field, knowing their name was taken off,” she said. “But I just couldn’t give up because it reminded me of when I got breast cancer. I told myself no matter what happens, I’m going to fight.

“I had to keep fighting because the message I want to give to my kids and grandkids is if there’s something you really want to do, no matter what, don’t give up on yourself. No matter who gives up on you, don’t give up on yourself.”

In 2021, Williams decided to go back to school for her second master’s degree, this time in rehabilitative counseling.

“Fast forwarding to this degree, which is the one I really wanted — with this degree it was like a totally different story. The staff was family-oriented and like the staff I remembered from undergrad,” Williams said. “I got my self-esteem back and felt good about myself, just confident.”

Williams described cancer as being a blessing and a curse because even though it caused her to be ill, it also made her go after the things she really wanted in life and made her look at things differently.

Now that she will be receiving her degree in rehabilitative counseling and her cancer is in remission, Williams plans to one day establish her own business as a mental health consultant.

“This is so me, and I wish I would’ve found my niche earlier. I found something that I love so much that I would do it for free,” she said.