It’s been nearly a year since Mae Ya Carter Ryan made her mom proud, graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.
For years, the Bronzeville prodigy wowed audiences with her smooth contralto vocals. But for the past year, her college alma mater has been off key.
Since graduating from Berklee on May 13, 2023, Ryan is still waiting to receive her degree. Despite emails and phone calls to Berklee, Ryan and her mother have had no success in obtaining that important piece of paper after Ryan completed four years of college and walked down the aisle last year during Mother’s Day Weekend.
Ryan is not the only Berklee graduate who so far has waited a year to get her degree. Another graduate, whose mother wants her daughter to remain anonymous, graduated with Ryan and has also been waiting a year to get her degree. That anonymous Berklee graduate is already a famous R&B singer, who since graduating from college, has had a Top Five hit on Billboard’s R&B chart.
Her mother visited Berklee this week to talk with Berklee officials about her daughter’s problems obtaining her hard-earned degree. But Ryan is home in Chicago, wondering why it’s taking Berklee nearly a year to send her degree when it takes three months for most colleges and universities to do so.
The two young women were among 1,150 Berklee graduates to celebrate their achievement in the school’s commencement ceremony, where hip-hop rapper Usher spoke after receiving an honorary degree. Grammy-award winning Quincy Jones and singer John Mayer are also Berklee graduates.
At the ceremony, Ryan received her degree cover but not the actual degree, a routine practice for most colleges. Three months after she graduated, Ryan inquired about her degree to Megan Neal, assistant registrar at Berklee, who in an email apologized for the delay. Ryan said she was told to submit an application for a degree and pay $40 to cover the costs of sending the degree by mail. Ryan said she did those things. Seven months passed and Ryan was still without her degree.
Fed up with the situation, on March 8, Ina, Ryan’s mother, emailed Joan Romano at Berklee’s Registrar’s Office.
In that email, which the Crusader obtained, Carter expresses concern about her daughter’s long wait for her degree.
“She requested her college degree from Ms. Megan Neal, as instructed, in August of 2023,” the email says, “However, despite following the necessary steps, we have yet to receive the degree.
“We understand that administrative processes can sometimes take time, but it has been seven months since the request was made. My daughter needs her college degree for various purposes, including employment opportunities and further education.”
Carter said after emailing Romano, she never heard back from her.
The Crusader reached out to Berklee officials. Dan Pesquera, a spokesperson for the college, said he would investigate the problem and get back to the Crusader by press time for the print edition.
Hours after the Crusader spoke to Pesquera, Ryan received an email from the college.
“They said they didn’t see my [graduation] form in the system. I told them I had paid. They said, ‘oh we’ll refund your money. We’ll send your degree overnight.’”
Carter said after she received the email, she said, “I felt great. I said finally, this is over. I think something is wrong with their system because when I filled out the form again, the system said, ‘please wait, please wait.’ It did this for about 20 minutes.”
Since graduating from college, Ryan has completed an internship in Los Angeles with the global firm Universal Music Group.
When she was 12, Ryan also performed at New York’s famed Lincoln Center, where she opened for the Jacksons in an event honoring Berry Gordy, Jr. She has also performed at galas hosted by NBA star Dwyane Wade and rapper Common. In 2016, Susan L. Taylor, former editor-in-chief of Essence Magazine invited her to New York to perform at her birthday party. In 2015, she performed at the 75th Anniversary Gala of the Chicago Crusader at the Loews Chicago Hotel in River North.
