Higher education weaves tightly through Marti and Jake Andries' relationship.
The couple met at Louisiana College while studying biology and then enrolled in the University of Louisiana at Monroe's accelerated nursing school program together.
After separately receiving their nurse practitioner degrees and working in their careers, the couple decided to return to school together in 2022 to earn their doctor of nursing practice degrees from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
The Andrieses walked across the stage together Saturday as Dr. Marti Andries and Dr. Jake Andries.
"Jake is a great teammate," Marti Andries said. "I just love doing life with him, so doing school is just an extension of that."
'We enjoy passing on that knowledge'
Taking care of people is in Marti Andries' DNA. Her father worked at a hospital in Mamou, where she grew up, and everything fell into place when she started nursing school.
Jake Andries, who grew up in Lecompte, was first interested in hospital administration. He earned a master's in business administration and was a nursing manager. But realized he preferred providing care and being with patients and returned to school to be a nurse practitioner, continuing to work in the emergency department.
Marti Andries has worked as a nurse practitioner for 16 years working with geriatric patients. She's always loved teaching and giving people hands-on experience in the nursing field. Pursuing her doctorate of nursing practice will allow her to teach future nurse practitioners in a more formal setting. And her husband realized the same thing.
"We enjoy passing on that knowledge and precepting," he said," whether it's at the bedside with the elderly or in emergency medicine."
They looked at several different programs before deciding to enroll in UL's, encouraged by the faculty's belief that the program wasn't just about earning a degree but about being able to make changes throughout the community.
The biggest challenge for the couple was balancing the program with their personal lives and careers. They have three children who are still in secondary school, are members of First Baptist Church and opened their own business. And both have full-time jobs, Marti Andries at a rehab and retirement facility and Jake Andries in the emergency department of a Lafayette hospital.
All of that pushed them to keep focused on the program and earn their doctorates in about three years.
"Everything has been all in the whole time," Jake Andries said. "I really feel like that made it much more rewarding because we know the effort that it takes to be successful with it."
Their children were "so ready for us to be done," he joked. It means more time together and no more presentations given from the quiet refuge of the car.
They'll both continue to work at their respective jobs. Jake Andries was promoted recently and now leads the advanced practice providers. He said he'd eventually like to ease into education.
Marti Andries will begin passing on her knowledge to UL nursing students in the fall.
"I love my little nursing home, folks, my geriatric community. I can't leave that," she said. "But if I can help with education, that's what I would like to do."