Coni Park
Project Working Mom Scholarship Essay
As a single mother, the prospect of falling prey to poverty is merely one lost job away. Having lived with the reality of how easily my three daughters and I could find ourselves in such a situation for over three years now has made me fully understand how important it is to continue to improve myself every day. Whether that improvement is in keeping myself healthy by adding more exercise to my daily routine or in making myself more marketable to employers by continuing my education, the improvements I make are not just for me. Each improvement I make adds to the lives of my children as well. As well as setting an example for my girls, continuing to improve on what I have to offer also gives me an advantage in my current and future employment. In order to make myself more appealing to employers, I want to complete my PhD in Human Services.
Obtaining a PhD has always been a goal of mine. After completing my bachelor's degree in psychology, I got married. My new husband and I agreed that I would work while he attended graduate school. Once he had completed his degree, I planned to return to graduate school. However, life happened and my oldest daughter was born at about the same time that he completed his master's degree.
After the birth of two more daughters and a divorce that left me raising them on my own, I realized that I still wanted to accomplish the goal of completing graduate school. There was never any question that I would put my educational goals on hold to concentrate on raising my daughters. I will never regret that decision. Yet, a few years ago, I realized that it was time to pursue my original educational goals. Having been presented with an opportunity to obtain a master's degree through online course work, the opportunity fell into place with the timing.
On the day that my family and friends helped me to celebrate the completion of my master's degree, my middle daughter (who was eight at the time) told me that she was very proud of me. At that moment, I was more impressed with the strength that my daughters had displayed over the two years that it took me to complete my master's degree than I would ever be with my own accomplishment.
I realized that my girls had watched me accomplish something that took quite a bit of time, determination, and desire. They helped me every step of the way by encouraging me to do my homework while they were doing theirs and helping out more around the house so that I had more time to focus on my studies. We were quite a team. We realized that we could help each other through just about anything, regardless of how bleak the situation may look on the outside.
Shortly after my master's degree was completed, I suffered a slight setback in my plan when my health began to fail. After many months of excruciating pain and extreme exhaustion, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. This diagnosis seemed like it may put an end to the finalization of my ultimate educational goal. Since that time, I have focuses on learning to adapt my home and work life to accommodate the symptoms of my illness. I have struggled to keep up with the day to day demands of these aspects of life and resigned myself to the reality of likely never finishing a PhD. However, a few months ago, my oldest daughter came into my bedroom to visit with me about her day at school. During the course of our conversation, she asked me when I was going to start working on my PhD. When I told her that I had decided not to go back to school, she looked at me and told me that she knew that if there was anyone who could do it, it was me. She told me that I was the strongest woman that she knew and that she would help me in any way she could if I decided to go ahead with getting my PhD. I was absolutely in awe at the maturity being shown by my thirteen-year-old child. I decided then that with my family on my team, I really could accomplish whatever I set my mind on doing.
In hindsight, I realize that waiting several years before pursuing my graduate studies has allowed me to gain some life experience that gave me a chance to decide what I really wanted to do with my advanced degree. When I did begin the process of completing those goals, I was more focused. I have worked in healthcare and corrections, for-profit and not-for-profit, independent and corporate owned environments. All of these positions have been learning experiences. Each has given me a chance to learn something new or improve a skill that had been learned at some other time. The most important discovery I have made in all of these adventures is that I want to help people regardless of what my job title happens to be.
My bachelor's degree was completed in a tradition, on-campus setting at a small, liberal arts college in Nebraska. My master's degree was completed totally through online course work without ever having physically step foot on campus. Each type of learning environment proved to have its advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps the biggest advantage of both was what it lent to honing my leadership and interpersonal skills.
One practical example of putting my leadership and interpersonal skills to work came about in a previous employment position. The perilous condition of the nursing home industry in general has raised a number of challenges. As I entered the position as the administrator of the local nursing home, the same challenges faced by facilities all over the country confronted me. Staffing shortages, questions about the quality of the care being provided, and the obstacles presented by the upkeep of an aging physical plant in the absence of sufficient funding were only a few of the issues needing immediate attention.
Some of the leadership team wanted drastic changes to be put into place right away while others were so frightened by the unknown that they were not ready for any changes regardless of how desperately they were needed. I quickly realized that the way I approached changes was going to have a huge impact on the entire process. The first order of business was to meet with the leadership team to introduce myself and explain my initial plan for determining what changes were needed and what timeline to use for implementing those changes. I also met with each supervisor privately to get their input as to what steps needed to be taken to improve the care we were providing our residents as well the overall condition of the facility. Establishing a plan for appeasing those who wanted immediate changes by making a few minor, but important changes right away while making some changes more slowly so that others had time to adjust was a difficult but rewarding task.
Two years later, the nursing home underwent a survey of federal and state regulations that resulted in no deficiencies being cited. We had maintained a profitable financial situation consistently and the facility had reached the ranks of one of the best in the state. Although I would like to say that it was all because of my leadership and the way I approached the people I worked with, I would be greatly exaggerating my part. Instead, I have to give credit to the talents of each and every one of the members of the leadership team in the facility. Yet, I also have to give myself a pat on the back for guiding the process and allowing those individuals to shine. Regardless of how difficult the task, being able to look back on the process after it has come to a successful end is one of the best feelings I have ever experienced.
Aside from the satisfaction of accomplishing my longtime goal of completing a PhD, I see this adventure as a chance to set an example for my girls. Through any tough time that life may find them in, it is never impossible to accomplish a goal if they are determined and take advantage of the opportunities that come their way.