Category: change

I earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of South Florida in 1980. It was a dream come true for a girl from the projects of Newport, Kentucky. How this came about is this story.

I grew up poor, and after the age of 12, was a ward of the state and spent my teenage years in foster homes and institutions. That should be singular. I was in one institution, Our Lady of the Highlands in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, which preceded two failed foster care placements.

The second foster family sent me to live with my father, the man who had sexually abused me as a little girl. Yes, they knew what he had done, but they said he was a Christian now and that God had forgiven him. Although I knew he would never again molest me, it was still stressful. Every day I faced the reminder of what had been, and I held my breath every time he walked past my bedroom door at night.

My oldest sister also lived with him as did my younger sister. My oldest sister had always blamed me for the breakup of our family because I reported the abuse. She was four or five months pregnant and said that she could not work to help support us. My father held a minimum wage job, which in 1968 was $1.60 an hour. She and my father encouraged me to get a job to help with expenses and so that Liz could buy baby clothes and other things for her coming child. I did as expected of me and dropped out of school.

Living with my family did not work out for me, and since I was employed full time, a family court judge gave me custody of myself. After a few months, I moved in with a friend in Pennsylvania and tried going back to school, but again I dropped out. Finally, in 1969 I took the G.E.D. examination and passed.  A high school equivalency was better than no diploma at all.

I will skip past years that included getting married, having a baby, and other life-altering events and jump to my years in the U.S. Army. There, I learned about the DANTE*[1] tests and CLEP*[2] tests and took advantage of them to earn over 90 credits. I also attended classes at one of Park University campuses at Fort Bliss, Texas. When I left the military, I had over 120 credits but no degree.  That meant taking additional courses at St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia and at West Chester State College in Pennsylvania. Those credits were transferred back to Park University, which awarded me a bachelor’s degree in Social Psychology in 1980.

By then I had two children to support and no financial or any other type of assistance from my sons’ fathers. At least the degree helped me get a better paying job. I got married again, and a few years later, we moved to Florida.

I had no idea what a social worker was until I met one in a nursing home. She told me a little about the field, and I realized that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my working life. She told me that the University of South Florida had a social work program. It took me another year to apply because I had never taken the SAT. That terrified me. How could I pass the SAT when I never attended regular college courses? I bought books and studied at home for a year, then completed the application for the test and sent in the fee.

The day of the test, I was so anxious that I had panic attacks and could not focus. A voice in my head told me that taking the test was an act of futility. I don’t know how I got through it. When my scores arrived in the mail, I had mixed feelings. I was disappointed that I had scored so low but thrilled that I scored high enough to meet the university’s admission requirements. (Not sure now, but I think I scored 1150. Not impressive.)

I submitted my application to the program just before the deadline for the upcoming school year. I knew that less than 20% of all applicants were accepted and that it would take months after the interview to learn if I had been approved. By the day of the interview, I had so little real hope that I faced my interviewer with the attitude that I had nothing to lose. I must add one other thing. Before the interview, I prayed a lot. I told God that I needed his help but that I had trouble discerning between his will and mine, and that if it was his will that I should be a social worker, that he had to give me a sign, and nothing subtle either. It had to be significant, like handwriting on the wall.

I got my handwriting on the wall. I don’t remember the interview, but I remember how it ended. At the conclusion, my interviewer stuck out his hand to shake mine. Instead of a polite “goodbye” he said, “welcome to the University of South Florida Graduate School of Social Work.” I could not believe what I had heard and asked him to verify that I was in.

I completed the Masters in Social Work with a 3.77 GPA. I could not manage better than a ‘B’ in statistics, and one of my professors downgraded me a full grade, from an ‘A’ to a ‘B’ for missing too many classes. I did not point out to him that I attended school full time, worked 40 hours a week at night, and another 20 hours a week for my internship in addition to having a family. I was too proud. It only mattered that I completed the program and earned my degree. Even with a less than 4.0 GPA, I was in the top 10% of my class. My bachelor’s degree was often scoffed at because I tested out of more courses than I attended, but no one could take this accomplishment away from me. Ω

[1] DSST (formerly DANTES Subject Standardized Tests) are credit-by-examination tests originated by the United States Department of Defense’s Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) program.

[2] The College Board’s College-Level Examination Program (CLEP)