Elin Nordegren graduated with a 3.96 GPA from Rollins College’s Hamilton Holt School in Winter Park, Florida this weekend. During her commencement address she managed to get in a few jabs at her ex-husband Tiger Woods.
It took Elin nine years to graduate from night school with her degree in psychology. Doing so while raising two children and working as a model at the same time was certainly no small feat.
She immediately brought up the elephant in the room–her divorce from Tiger Woods, saying that it “was right after I had taken communication and the media,” and that “I probably should have taken more notes in that class.”
Nordegren initially tolerated the infidelities, but when she learned of his 15th mistress she famously chased him out of their home with a golf club and knew it was time to throw it that proverbial towel.
During her commencement speech she acknowledged that the entire very public ordeal was “some of the most challenging times” in her life, and she managed to do so without ever mentioning Tiger Woods by name.
“I have also realized that education has been the only consistent part of my life for the last nine years,” Nordegren said. “And it has offered me comfort — because education is the one thing that no one can take away from you.”
After she married Tiger Woods back in 2004 Elin often took just one class per semester and also took three major breaks– two for the births of her children and one for the divorce ordeal.
On Saturday she was honored as the Outstanding Graduating Senior. University officials lauded Nordegren for her determination as a single mother raising her two children, Sam and Charlie and for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities benefitting under privileged children.
“I’ve been called a woman with no words in the media and criticized for not talking very much,” she said from the podium. “Words can be powerful. But what matters is the action behind the words.”
Congratulations to Elin Nordegren–not just for graduating from college at the top of her class with a degree in psychology, but for also remaining the quiet but powerful force she was throughout the entire Tiger Woods cheating scandal. She set a fine example–not only for women everywhere–but for her two children as well.
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