22-year-old graduate at U.C. Berkeley earns three degrees at once - University of California at Berkeley graduate Emmie Reed

Jet, June 14, 1993 by Trudy S. Moore

Emie Reed, a 22-year-old who always had enjoyed juggling and performing magic, recently pulled off one of her greatest feats when she picked up three degrees at once during commencement exercises at the University of California at Berkeley.

Of approximately 8,000 students in the graduating class of 1993, the perky Oakland native was the only one to walk away with three undergraduate degrees. She picked up sheepskins in political science, social science and legal studies with a 3.0 (out of 4.0) grade average.

After getting her third bachelors degree, she told Jet, "I've always just wanted to do a lot of things. Each major didn't offer enough on its own so I decided that this was what I was going to do" to get a jump on becoming a successful lawyer.

But she's no novice when it comes to keeping three balls in the air at once. At the tender age of 16 she had her own party store. Her specialty, performing magic and juggling routines, put her in great demand to perform at parties and festivals around the Bay Area.

But her first love has always been law. However, when the articulate and industrious young lady entered UC-Berkeley, she shied away from majoring in the legal field because she heard the field was swamped. "At first I was pre-med and also studied dramatic arts" while taking classes in legal studies. Still in search of a "complete, all around major," she declared a triple major in social science, and then political science which she combined with the legal studies courses she had been taking.

"I declared all three because I felt I needed all three. They deal with legal obligations, philosophy of law and society, theory of law and many of the courses overlapped," she explained.

An only child raised by her father Emmith Reed Jr. (her mother is deceased), Emmie said he instilled in her an optimistic spirit and steely determination. "My father thinks positively. He always believes everything will go well and I have adopted the doctrine of focusing on the positive rather than the negative."

The other invaluable lesson she learned from her father, a retired military man," Put your mind on something and do it completely. You should always complete a task before moving on."

With that resolve, Emmie crammed what would usually take the average person 12 years to do into four years of study. Her schedule is enough to make your head spin. Without taking a breath, she told how she did it.

"I would usually wake up around 7 a.m. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I had a class from 8-9 a.m. Then I would have another class from 10-11 a.m. In between I would go to the library to study. In the afternoon I had a class from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. then a class from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and another from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m." The ten-minute grace period between class gave this 100-pound dynamo just enough time to zip from one building on campus to another.

Tuesdays and Thursdays weren't much better. She spent the morning poring over books and completing assignments before going to an on-campus job from 12 to 5 p.m. Then she'd make a mad dash for a class that ran from 5 to 6:30 p.m. After her last class, "I'd study at the library for a couple of hours or I'd go home to meet my dad for dinner." Afterwards they'd relax at home watching television or go to a nearby golf course to hit a few balls. Before retiring by 11:30 p.m., she'd look over a class assignment, review notes or read a chapter.

Now that she has three degrees under her belt, she plans to enter law school in the fall of 1994 to earn a fourth, a juris doctor. In the meantime, she's still hitting the books as she prepares for the law school entrance exam.

"I want to do entertainment and sports law," she enthused, adding, "and these are just the steps I'm taking to reach that goal."

And what advice would the holder of three bachelors degrees give to college coeds who are struggling to earn one degree or college-bound high school grads? "I would say find something you really want to do. Study what you want to study, psychology, drama, music. You can only be happy when you're doing what you really want to do.

Yes, it's difficult ... but once you see your goal, you'll put all your energies and effort in that goal," the happy new graduate said speaking from four years' experience.