Gina M. Ocon '98-'00

She left Harvard in her sophomore year to have a daughter. Four years later, she's walking in Commencement 2000.

Gina M. Ocon '98-'00 admits that being an undergraduate at Harvard as well as a young, single mother limits, among other things, her extracurricular opportunities. But try telling her that she missed out on learning the skills taught in the likes of, say, the Harvard Juggling Club.

"It's been the ultimate juggling act," says Ocon of her dual responsibilities as student and mother. "It puts a lot of perspective on my entire academic career."

In late 1995, the former Eliot House resident withdrew from the College to return to her home in Southern California and have her daughter, Bailey, who is now four. But she was always determined to return to Cambridge to earn her degree.

Bailey's father disagreed, arguing that Ocon couldn't move his daughter 3,000 miles away. After a year-long custody battle that made national headlines, the courts gave Ocon sole custody in 1997, and back East she came.