Because she was still teaching when she began her graduate studies at Northwestern, Virginia went to school three summers before she enrolled full-time at The University of Chicago School of Social Services Administration. This was just shortly after her first husband, Gordon, had left for the war.

While at the University of Chicago, Virginia suffered some hard academic knocks. She got her first "D" ever on a paper, and a professor actually told her, "you are obviously not cut out to be a social worker." Virginia explained the negative reactions she received there on the basis of the school’s not wanting a married woman in its program, much less a married woman who was not "pledged to the traditional way of doing things" (Russell 11). She left school for a quarter but returned with renewed vigor. Undaunted, Virginia accepted what the school thought was a sufficiently awful placement to discourage her from pursuing her studies. She turned that placement at the Chicago Home for Girls into an extraordinary building experience, demonstrating that she could make the best of a difficult situation with little to no supervision or help. She finished her studies in 1943, but did not get her degree until finishing her thesis in 1948.

In 1975, Virginia’s power to overcome and transform hardship was publicly recognized by the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration Alumni, who awarded her a "Gold Medal" for service to humankind. As Virginia related the experience,

When I came to get the award, I said, I was privileged about getting this award because it meant something to me. But then I said, I can’t understand it. I came to the University of Chicago with stars in my eyes when I was a student and I found that it offered the same old things I had received at other institutions. And I said to myself, when I grow up I am going to do this differently. And you know, I got a standing ovation. (Russell 12)

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