From storm to stage, AU MBA graduate holds on to hope after hurricane

Completing a graduate degree while working full-time under the best conditions is a worthy accomplishment. Add in a devastating hurricane and the complete upheaval of your family, and earning that diploma is an even harder-fought feat.

When Ashley Christman walks across the stage to receive her Master of Business Administration, she’ll carry with her the weight of the personal struggles she’s endured during her time at the James M. Hull College of Business.

Life came at Christman in a big way during her time in the MBA program, and her response is nothing short of admirable.

Christman grew up around dentistry. Her mother worked in the same family dental office in Aiken her entire career. Christman decided to follow in her footsteps and become a dental hygienist, graduating from the Medical College of Georgia in 1997.

She worked first for the health department, serving 13 counties as district hygienist for the Georgia Department of Public Health’s East Central Health District for many years before a brief stint in private practice. 

When her now 18-year-old son was an infant, she got a job teaching dental hygiene at MCG. It was her way of keeping her skills sharp and getting out of the house for some adult time each week.

She is now an assistant professor at the Dental College of Georgia, teaching research methods and public health. Working only part-time while her children were young, it took her a little longer to reach assistant professor status, but she wouldn’t have done it any other way. Connecting with students is her favorite part of the job. 

“I really feel like we get to really play a part in our students’ lives, seeing them almost every day, five days a week for two years,” Christman said. “I tell my students when they walk in the door, ‘Your senior year, I will know you so well, I will know if you’re having a bad day.’”

She wants them to know she’s there for them.

“Teaching has been very rewarding, and I’m about to graduate my 19th class this coming spring. So, I can almost tell you every hygienist in town. Somebody can come up and say, ‘Oh, this is my hygienist,’ and I’m like, ‘I taught them,’” she said. “If you think 30 students in a class for 19 years, that’s a lot of hygienists we have educated.”

Going to graduate school has made Christman a better teacher, she said, because she got back to her student roots. As her children grew older and became more independent, pursuing a master’s degree, one of Christman’s longtime goals, became a real possibility. She knew she wanted to take advantage of the University System of Georgia’s Tuition Assistance Program and be in an in-person program. She wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to study, only that she wanted to challenge her science-brain in a new way. 

“Somebody mentioned to me getting my MBA, and what was exciting to me about that is I love math, I love processes, I love thinking through all those things. I felt like I was able to use my brain in different ways,” Christman said. “I know my learning style, and I know that I have to be face-to-face to engage, to learn things. I really like being part of a group and being able to talk things out. It’s been a challenge, but it’s been rewarding.”

Christman’s decision to attend Hull proved to be the right one, and she says the experience has been a gift. Her first MBA class was in January 2024, and, almost two years later, she’ll walk across the stage during the Dec. 10 commencement ceremony. Susan Murray, PhD, associate professor in the Knox School of Accountancy, was impressed with Christman from the start. 

“Ashley entered the MBA program with the kind of curiosity, drive and intelligence every professor hopes to see. Even when she wasn’t in front of the classroom, she was teaching — explaining, encouraging and helping her peers find confidence in the material,” said Murray, who marveled at the trials Christman has endured and her perseverance. “Later in the program, life tested her in ways no syllabus, exam or project could have prepared her for when a hurricane destroyed her home, yet she continued her MBA journey with the same determination and grace she had always shown. Her resilience and spirit have been an inspiration to everyone who knows her.”

That resilience and unwavering spirit have kept her family going through the ups and downs of repairing a home and restoring a life turned upside down by Hurricane Helene. She was home with her three children, 15-year-old twins and her 18-year-old son, the night Helene rained down on the CSRA. They thought they’d have a day off from school and work, with classes cancelled at AU and local school districts in advance of the storm. Like most Augustans, they had no idea what they were in for. 

Around 3 a.m., her daughter came downstairs, frightened. For a while, they lay listening to the howling wind before deciding the boys needed to join them. Not long after that, things fell apart. 

“We heard a crash upstairs, and my eldest son went back upstairs to find out what was happening. A tree went through the room next to him – his sister’s room – and shut the door in his face. So we’re screaming for him to come back,” Christman said, as she explained that staying together in the living room seemed like their safest option. “My youngest son is sitting in a chair. We were all going to try to sleep in the living room, and a tree came through, feet behind him.”

All of a sudden, their home, their safe haven, no longer felt safe. They wanted to seek shelter at a friend’s house nearby, but when Christman went outside, she saw her car, too, was smashed under a fallen tree. 

“I go back inside and stay as calm as I can and tell the kids, ‘Get your shoes on. We’re going.’ My daughter grabbed our bearded dragon because she will not leave him alone, and we ran the quarter of a mile to our friend’s house,” she said.

Perhaps miraculously, no one in the Christman family was physically hurt during the storm. They just had a massive amount of recovery ahead of them. 

In addition to family support, the camaraderie of her dedicated early morning workout crew and her grad school classmate, Lauren Horton, who’s in the same season of life, have been the oxygen she’s needed to keep going, fueling her forward on hard days. Christman regularly started those marathon days of work and school with pre-dawn sweat sessions at Orange Theory.

“I really feel like, mentally, without exercise, I would not be able to focus throughout the day,” she said. “It really helps calm me and put things in perspective. It also just gets me going in the morning and gets me motivated to move. And I like routine.”

In the midst of working, studying and writing papers, Christman spent the last year in a rental home, after living out of a couple of local hotels for a few weeks. She had to juggle grading papers and giving graduate school presentations while dealing with contractors, subcontractors, project managers and constantly shifting deadlines of when their home might finally be ready for her family to return.

“To say I’m tired is an understatement. It has been a very long process. We were supposed to move home at the end of November; that was the deadline. That was changed, and it was pushed into December. So, we will see how long,” she said, her voice weary yet remarkably optimistic. “I just want my house done right, to be honest. And I’m ready to go home.” 

Augusta University is also home to her after all these years. She’s excited for what the future holds for her professionally.

“I want to be a part of AU. I would like a new challenge and something where I can use my years of experience and education and take it to another level,” Christman says.

After graduation, there will be some rest. Hopefully, in the comfort of her own home. 

“I hope it will feel like a giant exhale. I hope I can finally breathe. I think it’ll be the start of having a little extra time and getting my life back, and I don’t mean that badly against the degree or the experience overall; it’s just been so much. I think once we move home, it’ll be another kind of relief,” she said.