Germanna Community College's Fall Commencement Speaker Talks About "Creating Her Own Path" to Success
Elaina Farmer was one of 680 graduates who received their degrees last week.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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During her first week at a four-year university a decade ago, Elaina Farmer survived a sexual assault that turned her world upside down. She went from being an “eager, optimistic” student who had graduated with honors from Massaponax High School to someone who struggled with depression and anxiety sometimes so intense that she couldn’t walk into a classroom.
But last week, Farmer, 29, delivered the address at Germanna Community College’s Fall Commencement. She graduated with honors from Germanna’s nursing program, was selected for the Phi Theta Kappa All-Virginia Academic Team, and has a job waiting for her at INOVA L.J. Murphy Children’s Hospital in Fairfax—fulfilling her lifelong dream of working with children.
“After a series of starts and stops, I finally realized something important: life isn’t a race,” Farmer said during her speech. “It doesn’t matter if someone reaches their goal faster than you—what matters is that you get there in a way that feels right for you. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is stop, take a deep breath, and step off the track entirely. So that’s exactly what I did.”
Farmer is one of 680 graduates who received a total of 1,102 associates degrees and certificates at the December 12 ceremony, held at the University of Mary Washington’s Anderson Center.


She spoke about withdrawing from her four-year university on medical leave during her sophomore year and moving home. She enrolled in Germanna in 2015, but found she wasn’t ready.
“I thought jumping back into school would fix everything... it didn’t,” Farmer told fellow graduates and audience members. “Instead, I found myself overwhelmed, anxious, and unable to move forward. Every time I tried to force myself to fit into a timeline, I wasn’t ready for, I felt like I was falling further behind.”
Farmer finally decided to “step off the track” and give herself time to get to a better place. She worked as a nanny, and when she was ready, Germanna was still there for her.
“I realized that failure isn’t about falling short of expectations. It’s about giving up on yourself,” she said. “I didn't fail. I had survived every one of my hardest days while doing the best I could. That, to me, is success ... Life isn’t about checking off boxes or keeping pace… It’s about creating your own path, at your own pace, and finding joy in the journey.”
Also at last week’s commencement ceremony, Germanna awarded an honorary degree to Mary Jane O’Neill, a longtime benefactor of the community college’s Educational Foundation.
O’Neill was Germanna’s Distinguished Philanthropist of the Year in 2019, after donating $2 million to expand the college’s healthcare training capacity and fund the Robert C. O’Neill Wellness Centers at the Locust Grove Campus and at the new Center Street location in North Stafford.
In addition, the college announced that the student services center at the Center Street location will be named for Jack Rowley, a member of the Stafford Economic Development Authority and president of the Germanna Community College Real Estate Foundation who was instrumental in making the North Stafford location possible.
Rowley’s advocacy for Germanna was recognized at the state level last year, when he received the 17th annual Chancellor’s Award from the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education.
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