Paula England
School for Career Development Graduate
December 2005

As a graduate of the School for Career Development at Midway College in December of 2005, I have been given the tools to pursue opportunities not available to me before.  After several attempts at attending college, I returned to Midway College in the fall of 2003 as an adult at the age of 37 years old.  I had always said that I wanted to complete my college degree before I turned 40.  I enrolled in the Organizational Management program and attended class on Tuesday evenings.  In addition to this, I also attended on other days to complete some of the basic required classes for the degree. 

At first, I was very nervous about returning to school because I wanted to do well and I wanted to complete school this time.  I had attended before and life has a way of sidetracking you sometimes.  I am a wife and the mother of three daughters as well as working outside the home in a full-time position.  I wanted to be sure that I was going to be able to handle the pressure and the stress of adding yet another role to my life as a student. 

My husband and daughters were very supportive and excited for me to be able to fulfill a dream and a goal that I had for a very long time.  My oldest daughter was due to graduate from high school in 2006, so I wanted to be finished with college by the time she was finished with high school. I also wanted to be an inspiration for my own daughters to go to college.  I am the first person on either side of my family to get a college degree. 

During the week before school was to start, my husband suffered a heart attack and had to have a six-bypass surgery to repair his heart.  Of course, when this happened I was ready to postpone school again so that I could take care of my husband during his time of recuperation.  I spoke with my mom about this and she encouraged me to continue with my plans to attend school and she said that we would all be able to help take care of my husband but that it was very important that I not put off attending school again.  On the one hand, I felt very bad about this because I wanted to be a good wife and support my husband through this difficult time but on the other hand, I saw the value of completing my education because what if my husband had died and then I was left to raise three children on the small salary that I made.  So this situation also made me realize the benefits of completing my education and preparing myself to be the main breadwinner of the family in the event that something did happen to my husband in the future. 

I completed my first two semesters and continued through the summer in order to stay on track to reach my goal of graduating by May of 2005.  My girls were inspired by my dedication and persistence in achieving my goal.  Along the way I made some really good friends that I still keep in touch with.  Throughout our journey together, we encouraged each other when we were feeling overwhelmed by everything.  When one of us was ready to call it quits, the others would rally around and hold us up.  With the way the cohorts are set up, you form your own little support group to help you stay focused on the goal.  It’s nice because everyone in general has the same goal and we all seem to experience the same pressures and stress so you form a network of people to help you through the rough spots and speed bumps along the way. 

In January of 2005, the college approached a group of people from the Organizational Management cohort to be the pilot group for the Human Resource Management cohort.  I was very interested in the curriculum and could see the benefits of having both degrees together so I enrolled in this program as well and attended class on Mondays and Tuesdays concurrently in order to be able to complete by December of 2005.  This was very challenging as well as rewarding at the same time. I really enjoyed the human resource aspect and actually decided on this a career choice as a result of my studies in this program. 

As my graduation date neared, I started sending out resumes and also applied for employment at the state of Kentucky.  I targeted some specific organizations to work for in the Central Kentucky area.  Throughout my career at Midway, I was exposed to many different types of career interest and personality surveys that helped me to determine what type of career would be a good fit for me.  As a result of obtaining the Human Resource Degree at Midway College, I secured a position as a Hurricane Reintegration Life and Career Counselor for Workforce Development at the Bluegrass Area Development District.  In this position, I worked with hurricane evacuees that were relocated to Kentucky by helping them find employment or receive training and to settle into their new communities.  This position was a grant position that lasted one year.  Since then, I have transitioned into another position as a Career Track Coordinator working in a partnership with Kentucky Adult Education and Bluegrass Community Technical College to enroll participants in the Older Youth Program and to assist the college in raising the number of students in the LPN and Nursing programs.

I encourage all adults that I meet that are interested in returning to school to see what Midway College has to offer them because it helped me tremendously in finding a career that I was suited for and that would give me the satisfaction that I desired.  I am truly grateful for the knowledge, skills, and abilities that I obtained as a student at Midway College.