As a teenager fresh out of high school, Jon Graham wanted to live out his rock star dreams – and for a while, that’s exactly what he did, forming several bands with his friends and performing around the country.

But in his mid-20s, Graham became a father, and as his priorities changed, he discovered a renewed passion for learning. Now, as the Virginia Commonwealth University student completes his Ph.D. in the School of Education this spring, he is grateful for his journey – “nontraditional” though it may be, he said.

“The music thing was a very temporary dream. Faced with having a child and those responsibilities, that had to become the most important,” said Graham, now 43. “And that’s really a big part of my educational journey – I want to show my daughter that even though I started with no education, it doesn’t have to be that way. I wanted to be able to pass on the knowledge of education to my daughter and really show her the power of it to improve lives.”

Graham has impressed his VCU professors with his diligent scholarship and thirst for knowledge. His research focuses on the “school within a school” model in the city of Hampton, which uses specialized academies to bring together students interested in a specific topic or career path.

In addition to his doctoral studies, Graham works as a research assistant with his advisor, Jonathan Becker, Ph.D., an associate professor of educational leadership. Becker praised his protégé’s growth as a scholar.

“I often say that Ph.D. students display an intellectual curiosity that can be a feature or a bug, but Jon has been able to direct his intellectual cravings and focus where he has needed to,” Becker said. “He started the program with limited experience in education, but he is on the verge of defending a dissertation that demonstrates a deep and complex understanding of the educational system.”

At age 29, Graham, a Yorktown native who now lives in Gloucester, received his bachelor’s degree in English from Old Dominion University, becoming the first member of his family to earn a college degree.

"It’s been a personal evolution process – even in high school, I wasn’t terribly focused on my studies, because we thought we were on the way to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. So I’m glad it worked out the way it did, because I needed those eight years of growing up and seeing as much of the world as I could.

Jon Graham

As an undergraduate, he worked full-time, balancing family life. But as he prepared to enter a master’s program at Regent University, he decided to devote the next phase of his life to education, leaving his full-time role and setting up an advisory service for students applying to college.

“I felt like it was a way to give back,” Graham said.

He received his master’s in psychology from Regent and then his master’s in organizational leadership from Johns Hopkins University. He began his Ph.D. program at VCU in fall 2022 and was set to finish this past fall, but he was injured in a car wreck, delaying his studies.

“It was hard – I had to take things a lot slower last semester than I thought I was going to have to, but I was determined,” he said. So determined, in fact, that in his hospital bed, his back broken in two places, he was still working on his dissertation.

Now, as he wraps up yet another degree, Graham is grateful that he chose education – and that he did it on his own timeline.

“Had I enrolled in higher education when I was 18 … it just wouldn’t have gone well,” he said. “I was focused on different things. It’s been a personal evolution process – even in high school, I wasn’t terribly focused on my studies, because we thought we were on the way to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. So I’m glad it worked out the way it did, because I needed those eight years of growing up and seeing as much of the world as I could.”

When Graham walks across the stage at VCU’s commencement, his daughter, now 16, will be in the audience. He said he hopes that when she embarks on her own journey, she’ll “remember the experiences she’s had hanging out with good old Dad, and all these ceremonies. I’ve hoped to expose her, and my niece who’s her age, to education because I love it and I think it’s incredibly powerful.”

Graham said he “will constantly sing the praises” of his VCU program and the professors, colleagues and friends who have supported him. In fact, he has enjoyed his time at VCU so much that he’s coming back – this time, for an MBA from the School of Business. 

As Graham said – and as he has shown – “I genuinely, genuinely have a love of learning.”