This Mom’s Reality – why AU works
I have spent a lot of years thinking about “what I want to be when I grow up”.
I’ve changed my mind on the answer countless times until one night a friend of mine made a comment about how great it would be if we had our own publishing house. At that moment, something seemed to click for me. This is what I wanted to do with my life. If I’m writing my own books and I know people writing their own books, I could actually make something out of this. For the next couple days I was on my computer or phone non-stop, researching everything I needed to do to make this a reality: what type of qualifications I needed to open a publishing house; what I needed to run a successful business — this led to different universities and programs.
“Now the main question: how was I going to go to school full time with my two girls?”
My oldest is in grade one and she’s in school all day, — my youngest is still at home with me all the time and there is no way I can afford to put her in daycare and I still want to be able to do things with my kids. I found a program that I was very interested in with Athabasca University, which gives me the option to stay home while I do my program; it gives me the flexibility to do the program in two years or in ten.
I’m able to take a few extra courses that will help me with my goal of opening a publishing house. They have great support people willing to answer my hundreds of questions and there is also the AU Student Union with the incredible website that keeps you up to date on the events going on, the Student Lifeline, scholarships, awards and bursaries, healthcare insurance, and so much more.
Why AU works
All of these things contributed to my decision to enrol in Athabasca University for the Bachelor of Commerce program. The fact that I am able to stay home and raise my girls, go out and do things with them, take them on trips, keep them as my main priority instead of it feeling like they are being pushed aside for my education was the main reason for me that I chose this incredible university.