Alumna Revels in Graduation Memories

By Lanita Withers Goins, University Relations

Contact: (336) 334-3890

Posted 5-18-09

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Friday wasn’t the first graduation for Bethany Marshall. But it is the one with the fondest memories.

“Just the fact that I do remember UNCG stands out to me,” she said.

There are many other memories Marshall can’t recall after a bout of viral encephalitis in 2000, during her senior year of high school, erased many of her memories.

The infection resulted in retrograde amnesia, leaving Marshall with the ability to do basic skills, like mathematics, but robbing her of the memory of ever having taken math classes.

She had already earned enough credits to graduate from high school when the amnesia struck. She participated in that graduation ceremony with her peers.

"I remember walking across the stage to graduate from North Iredell High School being excited because my family was so excited, but graduation didn’t mean anything to me at all,” she said. “I just did what everybody did."

After high school she worked to piece her life back together, re-learning basic skills such as how to count money and reestablishing relationships. In 2004, she traveled to California to participate on the NBC daytime show "Starting Over," an opportunity she said gave her the confidence she was lacking from dealing with her amnesia. When she got back to North Carolina, she was determined to go to college and enrolled at UNCG.

It was a bewildering experience at first. Her amnesia made her a true blank slate; she didn’t know what subjects she liked and which she didn’t. But she eventually settled on communications because "I knew I liked to talk, so I thought 'communications must be it.'"

College was an uphill battle. Although she had completed high school, she had to relearn facts and topics many college students take for granted. An early assignment – to write a one-page paper – was as daunting as a thesis to her. “I had no idea how to write,” she remembered.

Four years later, Marshall revels in what she’s accomplished and lauds the UNCG faculty and staff who helped her along the way.

“I have written research papers, written scholarly articles and made sense out of it. I can’t explain the sense of accomplishment that this builds for me. I feel like I could die tomorrow and have lived on top of the world."