Alyssa Ohleyer
As a student who was almost left behind I am passionate about making school count for every student in each of my three schools. I am a school social worker in Colorado, my journey to this place in my life has been one of struggle and reward. The children I work with sometimes remind me of my own experiences, but often bring with them new challenges that education is just beginning to understand.
Working in the largest school district in my state, I also see the challenges faced by our administrators in implementing the new IDEIA and adapting to the changing needs of our school age population. I am effective in my job in the schools, I feel I can do even more and am looking toward a PhD to get me to the position where I do the most good.
My own history as a student got off to a very rocky start. Following the death of my father at age four, my mother remarried and we moved to Colorado. At that time, depression was not identified in young children and once I started school I was identified instead as dull and oppositional (today I would have been identified as twice exceptional, depressed and reactive attachment disorder). I was not reading by the end of second grade, but did not qualify for Special Education because of the discrepancy model that is still used in my school district up to this year.
My mother enrolled me in a summer school that taught phonics and I was reading when I entered third grade, but barely. School was a torture for me up until I was sixteen when I was diagnosed with Dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder. Finally, the problem was not ME but things that could be treated and compensated for! I graduated high school, then college and in my semester in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, I got my first set of straight A's. I had a master's degree at the age of twenty-three.
The MSW has taken me full circle and I now work in the same elementary school I attended. But this is only one of three schools I serve, last year my caseload reached 60, I expect it to grow even larger this year. The challenges faced by schools are very different now; even then they were five years ago.
The population of children diagnosed with disorders in the Autism Spectrum is exploding and will continue to grow now that Autism will be routinely screened for as part of the annual exam for two-year-olds in the US. New diagnosis like Bipolar Disorder and sensory integration issues are challenging schools that had not seen children with behaviors this confounding in the past. As school budgets tighten, more and more students with complex and frustrating behaviors are being served at their home school. This has its pros and cons, usually better for the student but disruptive to the rest of the school.
I am one of those people who can say I love my job! There is nothing more rewarding that helping my students be successful in school. As a social worker, I am trained to look at systems and be creative in solving problems and changing behaviors. I see creative solutions to problems the school system itself faces. I am a problem solver and feel that administration is the next logical step in my career and my passion. A PhD in Education Administration would be an excellent fit for my goals.
I live in a small town in Colorado about forty minutes from Denver. My husband and I are raising our first child together, she is almost two. He has an older daughter who is turning nineteen and starting college herself. He worked in the construction industry up until February of this year, when he lost his job. He is now home full time with our baby girl and has returned to school in Denver, pursuing a degree and licensure in secondary education.
With two family members in school and being the sole bread winner, I figured I would have to put my plans for further schooling on hold until my husband was finished with his. However, the opportunity to work toward the degree online would be ideal as I do not have the time (or the gas money) to travel to Denver or Boulder where the closest programs are taught. A scholarship would mean I could move toward my dream of a PhD without placing my family in a financially precarious position.
Working Mom Power! Thank you for taking the time to read my entry, and for giving working moms opportunities to be their best!
Alyssa Ohleyer, MSW