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The University of Sussex

 10 July 2001 

Family celebrate their three degrees

Three members of the same family will be collecting their degrees at the University of Sussex summer graduation on Tuesday 17 July.

Sisters Joanna and Samantha Grundy will be awarded masters degrees in chemistry and philosophy respectively, while their brother Gilman will receive a BSc in astrophysics.

Joanna, 25, who's now at Sussex studying for a doctorate in chemistry, says there were lots of advantages in being on campus with Samantha, 23, and 21-year-old Gilman. "We were never stuck when it came to finding someone to go socialising with. And it was good to know there was someone nearby you could depend on."

"Although we are a close family, we didn't deliberately choose to come to the same university," she adds. Gilman arrived first to do his BSc, then Sam and Jo applied independently. Jo was teaching at Varndean School in Brighton and wanted to return to academia, while Sam was living at the family home in Lancing and was keen to study locally.

Their mother, Carole Grundy, is delighted that her three oldest children were together for part of their university education: "Children tend to grow apart when they go off to college, but this has brought them back together. They realise the strength of unity."

She has also found it more economical for them to be graduating from the same university at the same time. "I managed to get a 'two for the price or one' deal on the gown hire," she laughs.

She and her husband Bob will be attending the ceremony with their youngest son, Lot, who's studying philosophy at the University of London.




 Notes for editors 

For further information and/or photos of the Grundy family, please contact Alison Field or Jacqui Bealing, University of Sussex, Tel. 01273 678888, Fax 01273 877456, email A.Field@sussex.ac.uk or J.A.Bealing@sussex.ac.uk.




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