Braveview:
Adult learners valued

By Margaret Damghani
Senior Staff writer

It was easy to choose to finish school after becoming a mother. It wasn’t always easy to follow through on that choice.

As a parent of a young child, free time doesn’t exist.

Babies don’t understand that a paper is due the next day—they only know that they need taking care of.

Sometimes it felt like I was living two competing lives.

One as a student in college and a mother at home.

I found things that made me feel considerably less guilty for my choices to pursue my career, like co-sleeping, breastfeeding and leaving my daughter with family rather than at a daycare.

But at first, to say I was a little “freaked out” at the discovery that I was becoming a mother would be an understatement.

I had never even thought of it as possibility in my life at the time.

I had some preconceived notion that motherhood and college didn’t mix.

I was wrong.

Professors, across three different departments, allayed all my fears and have continued to support me while I’ve been here.

They worked with me on fixing a schedule I could work with and assured me that many people had done this before.

The head of one department, who only needed to sign a permission slip for me, told me her personal story of raising children while working through school and made me feel confident in a short, five minute meeting.

While I applied to UNCP because it was close enough for me to commute and had the major I wanted, I quickly found out that UNCP was the school for me for more important reasons.

The welcoming attitude I received as a mother, from administrators, staff and my professors, made me realize that UNCP is a school that supports the non-traditional student.

Adult learners make up such a large percentage of students that it is not surprising that resources are available, such as money that can be applied for through the Center for Adult Learners to help with daycare costs.

There could have been no better school for me and I will always have only good memories of embarking on the journey of motherhood while attending UNCP.

Raising my daughter and finishing my degree have been all-consuming over the past three years.

I couldn’t imagine having done it anywhere but at UNCP, which sometimes felt like a second home.

It was a home where I could feel fulfilled, pursuing a career I cared about, and then going home to a wonderful, but very different, life.