I *LOVE* school. Let's just get that out of the way.
If I could make a living going to class, I absolutely would. That said, I have had to make a go of financing my education in creative ways, in order to continue the pursuit of knowledge.
Middle and High School
This was where I decided that I wanted to be a teacher. I had so many amazing, engaging, and thoughtful instructors (as well as a few who I was unimpressed by), that I knew it was my calling from age 11. I was not, however, sure of what I was supposed to teach. English/Language Arts? History/Social Studies?
Community College
As someone self-funding my education, I headed straight from high school to Orange Coast Community College, in Costa Mesa, to pursue an AA. I was inspired by one of my high school teachers to get that done and transfer to the University of California, and so I buckled down and earned a 3.7 GPA. I did this while working full-time, sometimes 60+ hours a week, and planning my wedding, which took place in 2003. I graduated in 2004 with an AA, as well as a full scholarship to UC Berkeley.
UC Berkeley
My English/History debate was ended, for the time being, by the fact that a history BA required a statistics class, and I was unwilling to suffer through any more math classes. While at Cal I took classes on Elizabethan foreign policy and Nietzsche in the Buffyverse, and graduated with an English degree on Mother's Day of 2007. My daughter was born two weeks before my third semester began, and I was halfway through my pregnancy with my son when I graduated with a 3.7. I worked and raised children throughout the pursuit of this degree, as well.
Grad School, First Attempt
I started a Teacher-prep/MA program at an online university, but was unable to finish it due to my brother's accident with my daughter, and Julian needing all those neurosurgeries (catch up here, if you need to). I won a scholarship, but took a sabbatical in 2010, and never returned. The program did let me know how deeply I wanted to teach Social Studies.
Interpreter Prep
When it became clear that our family was going to need to use ASL, I headed to our local community college for classes. The online version I was taking through LifePrint was helping, and a lot, but I wasn't going to get fluent that way, so I went searching. I took ASL classes, met Deaf roommates, and did a year of a 2 year interpreting AA program, and then realized it wasn't for me, took my NIC written, got a mentor and left. During this period I did have a chance to go to Ghana and both teach and interpret at Andrew Foster's school for the Deaf, and it was fascinating.
Deaf Education, M. S. Ed
The Deaf Education program at Western Oregon had been closed for about a decade, and that meant their were no Deaf Ed programs in either Oregon or Washington, in 2012. In 2015, the program officially reopened, and I was the first applicant. I graduated in 2017 with a 3.9 GPA, while working, full-time, as an interpreter and commuting to Monmouth from Portland (90 minutes, each way).
Back to History
I have completed an online Graduate Certificate in US History at American Public University, also completed the full M.A. in History with the thesis (which you can read here, if you want). I love it so much that I've returned to work on a Graduate Certificate in online teaching, but I'm taking my time and only going half-time, but I really do enjoy it.
And then...who knows?
