All in the Family: Grad Follows in Mother’s, Grandmother’s Footsteps

When Andrea Sams graduated on May 8, it was more than a personal achievement. It was the continuation of a family tradition.

She is the third generation of women in her family to earn their degrees from UT.

Sams, of Kingston, Tennessee, will get her bachelor’s degree in recreation and sport management with a concentration in therapeutic recreation. She graduates from the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences.

Sams’s grandmother, Betty M. “Bay” Walker, graduated in 1953 with a master’s degree in family relations and child development and went on to work at three colleges, retiring from McNeese State University.

Sams’s mother, Beth Walker Sams, earned her bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising in 1983. She now works as the sheriff’s assistant in Roane County.

Beth Walker Sams said family had a huge influence on her decision to attend UT thirty years ago.

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