Above photo: Molly Hunsinger (left), visits her daughter Bailey Gumienny at Soft Water Studios, where Bailey works as a gallery assistant. Courtesy of Bailey Gumienny
By Amy Diaz
When you think about mother-daughter bonding, you might think of shopping sprees, brunch or spa days. You probably don’t think about sharing a university.
While mother-daughter duo Molly Hunsinger and Bailey Gumienny still enjoy morning mimosas, they are also earning their bachelor’s degrees in mass communications at USF St. Petersburg.
Hunsinger, 46, started at USF St. Petersburg in 2012 after receiving her associate degree from the State College of Florida the year before. She started college after high school, but chose to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities instead, including owning and operating two successful restaurants.
She now works as the director of marketing for a medical company and has been working in the communications field for more than a decade.
“I’ve been going to school for seven years just to get my bachelor’s degree,” Hunsinger said. With three kids and a full-time job, she explained that “it’s challenging because they don’t offer the classes that you need for your major at times that are convenient for people who work.”
Gumienny, 21, started at USF Tampa in 2016 after completing two years at St. Petersburg College. Initially a theater major, she eventually realized St. Petersburg was where she wanted to be. The fact that her mom would be with her at school didn’t bother her.
Although they have been in the same program for two years, this is the first semester that they have had a class together.
Their classmates in Senior Seminar with Dr. Silvia didn’t find out that they were mother and daughter right away — they don’t even sit next to each other.
“We didn’t really out ourselves,” Hunsinger said. “We told Dr. Silvia that we were mother and daughter, but the rest of the class didn’t find out until he actually … said something about it and everybody, like, erupted.”
Senior Seminar is considered a capstone course and focuses on preparing students to enter the mass communications field.
“It’s kind of funny because it’s supposed to be gearing you up for life experience, and she’s obviously already a very experienced person in the workforce,” Gumienny said. “Our assignments are like ‘Write a cover letter,’ and ‘Make a resume,’ and she already helps me with stuff like that because that’s what moms do.”
Sometimes Hunsinger’s experience in the field comes up in the class discussion.
“There have been a lot of positive things that the professor has said about me in front of the class that makes me feel like maybe Bailey is seeing me in a positive light,” Hunsinger said. “Like I’m not just your mom, I’m a person. It’s kind of humanizing.”
Gumienny feels that having a class together affects the way her mom sees her, too.
“When she sees me, it’s like to do laundry or we’re going to go to brunch or something … but not how I handle myself professionally,” she said. “As far as the class goes, I definitely feel that it gives us a better insight about each other.
Even though they don’t see each other around campus apart from the class they have together,, the duo have come to know a lot of the same people.
“I had a party for Bailey for her 21st birthday and someone was there that I had a class with,” Hunsinger said. “I’m having this open bar party at my house, and this kid that I have this class with is making a drink in my kitchen. It was pretty funny.”
Molly and Bailey aren’t the first familial relationship on campus, or in the mass communications program.
“It’s not the first multigenerational situation I’ve had,” Dr. Silvia said. “A nontraditional student named Michael Butler and his daughter, Ellery, were both in our program at the same time … but they weren’t in class together.”
Dr. Silvia referred to their relationship as a “role reversal.”
“Parents see their kids in a school setting all the time between visiting school, going to events and meetings,” Dr. Silvia said. “They see that side of their kid but when does a kid get a chance to see that side of their parent?”
Hunsinger will graduate this spring, and Gumienny will graduate this summer. The time that they have had together as students has improved their relationship as mother and daughter.
“I think it’s been kind of therapeutic for us,” Molly said, “and I feel like our relationship gets better all the time.”
