Susan Martin, Project Working Mom Scholarship Winner
I am a 33 year young single mother of two children. For a long time I didn't think I would have the chance to go back to school. After I seperated with my husband my house, car everything was in my name alone. I owned a home up in Connecticut and I tried for a long time to keep the kids and I above water so to say but ultimately the debt was just too great for me to afford on my salary alone. I couldn't heat my home and the electricity was scheduled to be shut off, winter wasn't far off and I knew I needed help to get myself out of that situation.
I am so very lucky to have the loving parents that I do. When my family needed their support they opened their home to us and have been nothing but supportive of myself and my kids. My home was foreclosed and I gave away all but what I could fit in my little cavalier. The kids and I picked up and moved down to Florida to get a fresh start. It took me a little white to realize that this was really a great opportunity for me to start over. I had to go through a bankrupcy which was very emotional and moving back in with Mom and Dad at my age wasn't exactly a feeling of success. On top of that I wasn't getting any feedback on job interviews and it dawned on me that even though I had held lots of good jobs I didn't have the education I needed to have a competitive edge these days out on the job market. I also realized that I needed to get out and do something to make me feel like I was moving in a positive direction. I decided it was time for me to go back to school and get my degree.
I looked around at the different colleges but it was a friend I had met from here in Florida that recommended Saint Leo University. After touring the campus and seeing all the great scheduling options they have for someone like me, an adult learner/single mother, I had decided. I have been taking classes now since Spring 09. I even made the deans list last session. It was alot of hard work but it felt so rewarding to me. I had never imagined that I would be able to do this. I thought after I had my children, my time for school had passed. But here I am and its going wonderful. On top of feeling better about making a better future for myself and my kids I feel that my children's outlook on college has changed as well. They are very involved in my schooling. We discuss it at night at the dinner table and I have lots more to tell them about these days. When they talk about what they will do when they grow up, its always what they will go to college for now and before they used to say if I go to college. So for me that is a huge accomplishment, setting a good example for my kids and showing them how important an education is for a successful career and also for an ever learning mind.
If you had told me a couple years ago how that bad time in my life would lead to good events, I would never have believed it. But I guess sometimes things happen for a reason to put us back on the right track again.
