I took one semester at college, but between working, getting the credits and having small children, it became pretty difficult. So at this time in my life, for my own personal satisfaction, I will hopefully be retiring and then I will go back. Not because I need it but for my own personal satisfaction: to meet a goal I have set for myself that I have not achieved completely yet.

Ed, who is currently balancing ongoing education with a full-time job and responsibilities as a parent and foster parent, sums it up: “Going to work, being a parent, and going to school, it’s a full plate.” Sarah acknowledges the importance of the help she received from her family, saying: “I really haven’t had too many setbacks. The door has been opened for me to further my education and get a degree that I was hoping to get. Like I said, I have a very supportive family.” Going to college as an adult with young children is nearly impossible without a supportive family. Frank knows this. He is still working as a janitor and confessed that after receiving his GED: “I really haven’t pursued the education part to get a promotion.” But Frank is providing the child care, emotional and financial support for his wife who “is in college at this present time studying to be a teacher for special education.”

Finances

Six of the 14 participants (43 percent ) who completed associate, college or advanced degrees received financial assistance in the form of a scholarship, pension or employment disability compensation; five were single mothers and one was a recent immigrant. Other higher education students had to support themselves, their families and pay college tuitions. Although participants in this category had working spouses, it was not easy. Georgia worries about her husband’s health and can’t wait till she can help pull part of the load that was incurred during her schooling.

He has been working so hard providing for the family both physically and mentally, I’m not sure how much longer he is going to be able to last. So I would like to be able to be in a position to be able to support the household with or without his income, maybe even have my own business.

Charlene did part time bookkeeping, housecleaning and farm chores while going to college. She earned her degree in 1992 and has been employed as an intensive care social worker ever since. Eight years later, she and her husband are still working to pay off the debt that was incurred. Bruce enrolled in college in 1989 and graduated four years later at the age of 36. During his college years, the family lived on $10,000 a year. He worked evenings, weekends, and summers at any job he could find and his wife worked full time to support the family. According to Bruce, it was worth it:

The achievement that I’m most proud of is probably graduating from college. I’m the first male in my family that I know of who even got a GED; everyone just quit school and went to work, I’m the only one I know of who graduated from college.

Of major interest is the fact that all but one of the higher education graduates went to college immediately after completing their ABLE program. Furthermore, 12 of the 14 earned their associate or college degrees within the normal (two or four year) time frame. Anna, who attained a Master’s Degree in Social Work eight years after receiving her GED, describes the process:

After receiving a GED, I continued right on through getting my GED at the learning center, did my first internship there for the …community college and then from that internship, I went on and I received a scholarship to go on to … university for undergraduate. I got that in two years, working part-time, going to school full-time, and then I kept saying after I got my Bachelor’s Degree, that would be it. ‘I don’t want anymore school. I am getting too old for this school stuff!’