At Peirce, we’re always thrilled to highlight exceptional
students who overcome challenges to meet their academic and career goals. In that past,
we’ve featured deployed service members, married couples, and a mother and
son who are completing their studies together, among many others.
So when we learned about the Young family we knew we had to
speak with them. They are a husband, wife, and daughter all attending Peirce
together while each managing incredibly busy schedules. It was inspiring to
hear about their amazing story of commitment, dedication, and their extraordinary
ability to balance many different priorities while also excelling in their
academic studies. We think you’ll agree.
We started our conversation by discussing the circumstances
that led them all to be enrolled at Peirce at the same time. The conversation
then turned to the demanding schedules that each member of the family manages
on a daily basis. Finally, we ended with the advice they would give to other
learners who are juggling family, work, and personal commitments while pursuing
their education.
Meet the family
Leigh first came to Peirce several years ago to pursue an
associate degree. At that time her husband, Anthony, was in the military
stationed in Kosovo and she was taking care of three children in the home, the
youngest being just 18 months old. Because of this challenging schedule, Leigh
found the online courses at Peirce to be convenient and compatible for her
situation. She’s now a senior at Peirce where she is pursuing her bachelor’s in
Integrated Leadership.
Her daughter Bene’t was part of the Year
Up program that partners with Peirce College to provide young adults with
the skills needed to succeed in the workforce. The yearlong program starts with
six months of professional development and upon completion guarantees an
internship at a Fortune 1000 company. Bene’t excelled in the program. She won
the Leadership Award, secured an internship at JPMorgan Chase, and eventually
earned a year-long extension of the internship.
For Bene’t, after graduating from high school and taking
classes at the Community College of Philadelphia, she realized she wanted to
advance further in her studies. Her mother recommended she take a look at
Peirce because of her earlier positive experiences. Soon thereafter, Bene’t
found herself enrolling at Peirce to pursue her bachelor’s degree in
Information Technology.
It was around this same time, now back from Kosovo, that
Anthony realized he had a GI Bill he could use. After retiring from the
military (though working full-time at the U.S. Post Office) he decided to join
his family at Peirce and pursue an associate degree in criminal justice.
Getting down to busy-ness
To say that this family is busy would be an understatement.
Leigh, who just got a new position at Temple University’s School of Podiatry,
is also very involved with her church as the Women’s Director and church board
secretary. She’s enrolled in a yearlong leadership course with the church and
takes weekly fitness classes. She wakes up at 5am to get some studying and
homework done before taking her 13 year-old son to the bus stop at 6am.
Anthony leaves for his third shift position at the Post Office
at 10pm and returns home at 8am. After settling in, he begins studying and
completing homework, often until he falls asleep.
As for Bene’t, she’s taking online classes at Peirce while
also taking a Saturday calculus course at CCP. She is working 19 hours per week
in her Year Up internship extension at JP Morgan on Mondays, Wednesdays, and
Fridays. She plans on dedicating Tuesdays and Thursdays as her study and online
class days this semester.
In addition to their individual schedules, family time and
taking care of their 13 year-old are very high on their priority list.
Advice
So how do they do it as a family? Leigh tells us:
“There is always bumps
in the road. We’ve had to learn as a family how to study and be involved with
school, while still being involved with each other. There were points where
everyone would scatter and sometimes we would only see each other in passing or
at meals. Being knowledgeable of each other’s schedules, stresses and time
needed helps us to be empathetic to what each person is going through. For
example, I may take a class and do very well in it but another family member
may not feel the same way about the class. We push each other by being
competitive and we always help motivate each other.
Once you get in a rhythm you can do it, you
can find a way. I don’t get home from work until 7 but still have to find a way
to do it. So time management for all of us is very important. The time that you
spend watching a television show is the time that it takes to study, so it’s
about sacrificing and knowing your goals. But through all of the stress and
challenges I would do it again because of the many rewards of it. We’ve
developed as a family and it is setting a good example for my 13 year old son,
who is already placing in advanced classes. We’re proving that education can be
a family event.”
Leigh is only eight classes away from completing her degree
and hopes to graduate next year. She tells us that since Temple is such a big
organization, she plans on utilizing her education to go further along in her
career than she would be able to without one.
Anthony currently has a 4.0 GPA and hopes to graduate with
his associate degree in criminal justice in 2016. From there he may decide to
continue his education by pursuing a bachelor’s and possibly finding a third
career in criminal justice. “Who knows, he may be working in homeland security!”
Leigh added.
Bene’t plans on pursuing a two-year Career Development
program at JPMorgan Chase that starts in July 2015. She hopes to graduate from
Peirce with an Information Technology bachelor’s degree in programming and
application development. She’ll graduate with her associate degree from CCP
this January.
Good luck to you all and thanks for being such an inspiring
family!
