Linda Akbar and Joy Swanson are sharing a particularly special Mother’s Day weekend.

The mother and daughter from Buffalo graduated together on Saturday from Hilbert College in Hamburg. Akbar, 52, earned her bachelor’s degree in human services. Swanson, 33, graduated with a bachelor’s in legal studies.

Each one credits the other for the achievement.

“She was such a big encouragement,” Swanson said after Hilbert’s commencement at the Wesleyan Church of Hamburg on McKinley Parkway.

“It’s very difficult with working, having four children and going to school,” Swanson said, “but she was like, ‘Honey, you can do it.’ And I thought, ‘If my mother is doing it, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be going.’ ”

Sharing the college experience with her daughter was the best way to earn a degree, Akbar said.

“She motivated me so much by believing in me,” Akbar said.

Both had earned associate’s degrees from Erie Community College, and it was actually Akbar — a mother of three and grandmother of six — who talked her daughter into furthering her education.

Both enrolled at Hilbert in the fall of 2009.

The two didn’t have courses together, but they enjoyed carpooling to their night classes, when they’d stop for a coffee and chat about the papers they had to write. The two would work together in the campus computer lab, where Swanson taught her mother how to “cut and paste.”

Akbar, who wants to be a school psychologist, had a promising job interview last week, but Swanson, a school bus driver, hasn’t had a lot of spare time to look for work in her field.

“Hopefully somebody will give me an opportunity,” Swanson said. “But I’m just glad it’s all over. It’s a sigh of relief.”

Well, it’s not really over yet. Both were accepted to Niagara

University, where they will study for their master’s degrees — and continue to share rides to campus.

The mother and daughter were among more than 200 earning diplomas Saturday at Hilbert’s 50th graduation ceremony, where Buffalo Zoo President Donna M. Fernandes gave the commencement address.

“One phrase that best captures my philosophy and best expresses my approach to my career, relationships and role on this planet is this: Leave everything you touch better than you found it,” Fernandes told the graduates.

Phillip Catanese, vice chairman of the Hilbert board of trustees, received the Hilbert College Medal; Barbara Bonanno Wilcox, Hilbert’s director of campus ministry and mission integration, was honored with the Hilbert President’s Medal; and Daniel Gernatt Jr., a Hilbert trustee, received a honorary doctorate of humane letters.

jrey@buffnews.comnull