With determination and making the necessary sacrifices, 32-year-old Aneisa Grant of Tucber Park, New Amsterdam was able to complete her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Management at the University of Guyana, Berbice Campus, and was also awarded the best graduating student in her programme having passed with distinction.
The mother of three started her academic journey at the University of Guyana in 2018 while caring for an eight-year-old and a nine-month-old. She was also employed full-time with the Regional Democratic Council in Region No. 6. She recalled by the second semester of her final year she had given birth to her third child and although she was fortunate to have supportive family and coworkers, it was still somewhat difficult.
Grant noted that on many days she felt defeated as she struggled to strike a balance between being present as a mother, maintaining her workload at the office, and keeping meeting her academic deadlines.
“Throw planning a wedding and being a wife into the mix and I can assure you it was complete chaos.” She added.
The humble young mother disclosed that despite the challenges she encountered as a mother while studying, she used all of her free time to complete assignments and sometimes study. She posited that her efforts weren’t in vain since she managed to pass all of her courses except Economics with straight A’s. Excelling in her first semester gave her the momentum and inspiration she needed at the time to continue on a path of academic excellence.
During the second semester of the second year of the programme, the COVID – 19 pandemic saw the university transitioning to the online classroom. This she described as being none compared to the traditional classroom.
“The interactions among peers and with the lecturers cannot be replaced and were severely lacking for the remainder of my (our) studies. Online learning was a bit more convenient in terms of lessening the hours of travel.”
This she said posed new challenges which include breastfeeding while completing tests and being interrupted by her kids during online projects. But despite these challenges, the switch to online learning allowed her to spend more time with her children because she was no longer away from them for long hours per day.
Given her experience, Grant is encouraging other mothers and parents as a whole who wish to pursue higher education to take advantage of the combined learning format offered by the University because “If I can do it then you can do it too.”
By: Royan Abrams
