NORMAL - Roberta "Bobbi" Hornbeck worked hard to see her triplet daughters graduate from Heartland Community College - and she had her own homework, too, as a student graduating with them.

Hornbeck and daughters Shawna, Stevie and Shelby Hornbeck, all of Pontiac, were among nearly 630 students who graduated Friday in a ceremony at Bone Student Center, Illinois State University, Normal.

"We knew she was going to graduate - we just didn't know when," said Shelby Hornbeck. "She always joked it'd be really weird if we all graduated together."

"It's really neat. It's just something I don't think happens very often," the mother said, adding that it was not planned.

"I started going to school in 1996, just taking a class here and there," she said. Later, her job status became in doubt, so with just 20 credits left to graduate, "I just cracked down," she said.

"She worked full time, went to school and raised us," Stevie Hornbeck said.

The mother, who plans to go on to Eureka College, and three daughters studied together, and that helped to bond them even more closely. The three sisters share an apartment, work full time at Buffalo Wild Wings on the wait staff and plan to go on to California.

"We're connected together at the hip - same friends, same interests and activities," Stevie Hornbeck said.

Shelby and Shawna Hornbeck are heading to California to establish residency so they can attend California State University. Stevie plans to join them later.

Their brother, Johnny, lives in Florida.

At the ceremony, the guest speaker was student Elisabeth Bliese, the mostly home-schooled daughter of David and Laurie Bliese of Merna. She said Heartland helped her make the transition from being home-schooled to attending a university.

"Being in a class of one … I would have struggled in a large university," she said.

In a voice choked by emotion, she called going to Heartland a blessing. She plans to attend ISU in the fall, majoring in English.

She plans to study in England in spring 2009.

Graduation was a time and place with smiling people.

"I've come all the way from New York," said Judy Matos, whose son, Otis Watson, was graduating with major in computer-aided drafting and design. "I'm very proud. I'm very proud. That's my first-born. He made it."

English professor Glen Bush received the Outstanding Faculty Award. He's been with Heartland 14 years.

Michael McAvoy, instructor of art, was honored with the Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award. He has been with Heartland seven years.

"I've always known that I love to teach. It's nice to know that it loves me back," McAvoy wrote in remarks printed on the program.

David Vaught of Bloomington was relieved to see his daughter, Ethelinde Vaught, graduate with a nursing degree. She works at a medical center and has three young children in addition to studying.

"It's a lot of stress. I'm glad it's over," her father said.