Coming full circle is a running theme for many graduates in Temple’s Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) program. With many of them returning to Temple to finish what they started years ago, reflecting on how they are fulfilling a promise to themselves is certainly natural.
For Michael Perkins, who walked across the stage at the Temple University University College Graduation Ceremony on May 8 to receive his degree, there was also an element of geography involved in that circle.
“My journey started at Central High School, as a member of the 233rd graduating class from the all-boys academic high school up the street near Broad Street and Olney Avenue. It took me to Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, DC — the Mecca of Black education,” he said. “Then I returned to finish at Temple University here in North Philadelphia some 50 years later, full circle from where my journey first began.”
Perkins said he was motivated to return to the classroom “by the people around me and what I can be in my community once I’ve achieved this goal.”
“While college may not be for everyone, I do believe it’s something that needs to be encouraged and students need to be given the proper motivation as early as elementary school and junior high — it needs to be nurtured over a process of years. Speaking from an African American point of view, we should believe that college is an option for all of us and something we should pursue because if we don’t take advantage of it, the opportunity isn’t going to be there for you,” he said. “My nieces and nephew are examples of this — my sister raised them well and they are all graduating from college. I started college before them, but they all finished before me, so I did this in part to show them that Uncle Mike went to college too and he graduated from college as well.”
Degree in hand, Perkins said, “ideally, I’d like to become a mentor or a tutor.”
“I ran a mentorship program for my Masonic lodge for a number of years. So, my hope is to be an inspiration to people in some way, shape or form,” he said. “I see myself volunteering; I see myself continuing my education; I see myself being an inspiration in my community. Hopefully I can motivate younger people to consider college as a viable option for themselves.”
According to Perkins, his own journey back to the classroom began with a consultation with Graduate Philadelphia.
“I knew I wanted to go back to school so we explored my options. I had gone to Temple previously for communications at one point and computers through the Fox School of Business at another — it seemed to be the best option to get to the finish line,” he said. “I had worked for the City of Philadelphia for 22 years in the court system as a Deputy Clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions. When I decided to fully retire in January 2024, I was working for Amtrak. Then I began the Bachelor of General Studies program in the fall of 2024.”
While working for the Philadelphia court system, Perkins said, “I worked in the only department that actually handled court documents at the time.”
“I was a records keeper. I worked in a homicide courtroom alongside attorneys and judges, some of whom have gone on to sit on the state and federal benches. I worked for Justice Juanita Kidd Stout, whom the Center for Criminal Justice is named after,” he said. “During that time, I was also running a jazz club that my cousin had opened in Germantown. It was a very interesting period of time in my life.”
It also became a reflective and motivating period of time, Perkins said.
“Every day I was encountering judges, attorneys, police officers, people that were doing things in their communities. I felt that if I applied myself, I could be doing the same things, having the same impact that they were,” he said. “That motivated me to go back to Temple several years ago. I thought I was going to graduate then but between the times I had stopped and come back again, the core requirements had changed and there were more courses I needed to take. At that point, I started looking for other opportunities, but I never really stopped trying to achieve this goal.”
Perkins said he credits “God, my grandmother, who instilled in me the importance of education, and the male role models in my life who encouraged me to be the very best I could be,” for his continued drive to complete his degree.
“I knew if I didn’t achieve this goal that I would have wasted some of my lifetime and some of my life spirit. Deep in my heart I knew I would only be satisfied if I achieved this goal — I had reached an accumulation of skills and a mindset that put me in a perfect position to complete this process at this time,” he said. “I laugh about it with my friends now, because everyone in my life was encouraging and telling me I’ve always had it in my, but then there was still this doubt that would come over me at times. With (the BGS program) I could see light at the end of tunnel, and it kept getting brighter and kept getting closer each day.”
Perkins said there was some culture shock returning to the classroom after many years away.
“It’s a different world. It’s not the world of pencils, papers and textbooks I was used to. At 68-years-old I’m also usually the oldest person in the room — older than the other students, older than the instructor,” he laughed. “But I’ve been receiving nothing but encouragement from my fellow students. The instructors have all gone out of their way to meet me at my point of need and I’ve utilized all of the resources that are available to me, including my tutor — she’s really grown with me and learned my idiosyncrasies and how I do my best work.”
Achieving this life goal, Perkins said, has inspired him to go even further.
“This degree is a comma, not a period — I took too long to get here, but now that I’ve got the train running, I’m far from being done yet. At this point, I want to pursue a Master’s in African American Studies,” he said. “I went to an open house the department held, and they are pointing me in the direction of what I need to do. Come the end of August, I want to be back in the classroom. I’m at a point in my life that it’s no longer about a career or financial stability, it’s for the educational experience in a field of study I’m genuinely interested in. I’ve waited long enough — I’m doing this for me, I’m doing it for the ancestors, I’m doing it for those whose shoulders I stand on.”