by Larraine Johnson
Moving through the professional ranks in the 21st Century is useless unless you have an advanced degree. Years ago it was possible to begin a career right out of high school and make headway into a chosen field. As a young woman, I did. The field work was public housing administration. Truthfully, this is not a field of work that well-educated, ivy leaguers rush towards. Working with people with limited resources can be challenging; I found the systems that served them to be the most difficult. The largest funding base remains state or federal funding which can be subject to electoral change every four years. Funding initiatives come and go, leaving these needy populations underserved. A combination of bleeding hearts (like me) and the college educated holding degrees as diverse as Art History to MBAs have traditionally served these communities.
Serving from the heart, I was good at what I did. The problem I encountered was when I wanted to change jobs; I did not have a college degree. Struggling through nine years of scholastic time over a thirteen year span of taking classes between little league games, science fairs and everyday single parenting, I finished my bachelor’s degree in 2004. As I gathered strength to receive my diploma, I knew the advanced degree was needed to compliment my job experience. I live in a regional job market where there are at least a dozen colleges, universities offering post-secondary training opportunities. With 70 percent of the surrounding workforce holding associates and bachelor’s degrees, I knew it was grad school or bust!
During one of my women’s studies classes, we talked about the employment market and the changes from the 1960s and 1970s. Since I started my career as a young woman, I was able to retire with a pension. In our class, we spoke of women and men having multiple careers in the future unlike the lifelong careers of the past. With the rapid change in technology, the dynamics of manufacturing has been grossly affected. Recently the Columbus Dispatch reported that the State of Ohio has lost 200,000 jobs in the last decade. I was serving a small Ohio, Appalachian community during that period when the little community of 15,000 lost 1,000 jobs. It was sad to hear about entire families, mother and father, second generation sons and daughters losing their livelihoods. “I thought the mill would always be there,” one lady said with great remorse. That woman had begun another career as a pre-school teacher after receiving job training benefits.
I was fortunate in that I had a good sense of me after retirement in 2002. As a single mother in and out of relationships, I forced myself to do the personality inventories, etc. to prioritize what and who was important. With help from my educated daughter and occupational counseling, I discovered that I am well suited for the social work field as I have a capacity for assisting people with limited resources. While my discovery process took years, it is a necessary place for any non-traditional student considering first-time or re-entry into a post-secondary program. I found out very quickly that college tuition is expensive, financial aid is limited at the undergraduate level and nearly non-existent at the graduate school level. Unlike my younger peers, I do not have the luxury of time when it comes to multi-year degree choices. I love going to school but I want to work in my field before I grow too old to care! For others with time and without focus you may experience the frustration of changing programs, changing schools which can add additional years to your desired end as well as losing precious credit hours already obtained.
In spite of my “preparation,” I was ill-prepared for grad school. During my first quarter I took daytime classes with students who were much younger than I was with limited experience. I was intimidated by their ability to grasp the subject content much quicker than I did. I discovered that the daytime classes were subject to more testing which terrified me. And then I remembered that there are evening classes! Evening classes were largely returning adults who had work place experience. In most cases, the instructors were different as was the approach. Testing methods for the evening students were largely take-home tests, essays; in-class testing would be multiple choice and short answer. Overall I found comfort and companionship with the evening students. Eventually I returned to a part-time position for days and attended school at nights. Most of us arrived with dinner in our hands, a cup of coffee to stay on task and a great commitment to the subject matter at hand.
I have enjoyed the best debates and great insight with my evening pals. I cannot say that I had the same experience with my daytime peers. The other thing I have valued was the opportunity to meet people working in the various fields of social work. In my former position, I served families or elderly. Through conversations with the evening students, I have learned about the other fields. I have heard their opinions about the population, the pitfalls they encounter and their ability to cope and/or make the difference.
Another obstacle I encountered during this process was facing my own demons and personal history. Proudly this “wounded healer” attempted to show up for several volunteer projects. Try as hard as I did, I found my own “woundings” still bleeding interfering with my delivery of services. Also I found my history to be a challenge when seeking out an internship placement. Agencies I was interested in serving were not interested in me because of my history. Some program managers were afraid of me bleeding all the clients. So what did I do? I stopped to deal with any unresolved issues. In some cases, I was not able to finish the task, postponing it until I had become centered again. In other cases, I simply limped across the finish line. As a non-traditional student, I have learned to accept the less than perfect performance. Life circumstances, past and present do not always afford you the 100 percent score.
Which brings me to the most valuable lesson I have learned: it is a process. When I first came to college, I thought “I will go through the program, get my ticket (degree) punched, and be free to conquer the world.” I never understood that this quest would dig deep down into my being, my psyche, my ego, my past, my present, my future. I never realized that it would break my intellect, my self-identity and re-form me as a broken vessel, ground to dirt, watered clay, returned to the potter’s wheel for another turn.
Years ago, I approached my professor to assist me with gaining employment at the college. Positive I could do a certain job, I pressed the professor for a recommendation. Graciously, the professor explained that the position required a bachelor’s degree which I had not yet obtained. I don’t remember the balance of the conversation but only his words, “It’s a process.” Oh, how I had hated those words at the moment he said them to me. However, I have grown to appreciate them. I have chosen the process of higher education to transform me so I may be of greater value to myself and others. I choose to think of each credit hour, each quarter as my steps towards self-mastery within the scope of serving that purpose. The field of social work lends me that ability to serve a greater good. So through the process, I remain, grad school or bust.
Enjoying life as an empty nester, author Larraine Johnson is resting from over thirty years of parenting. She attends Ohio State University seeking her Master’s in Social Work and resides in Columbus, Ohio with her West Highland Terrier, Noel.
