Posted by Alyssa Owens

As an avid blog reader, I often wonder who the person is behind the particular blog that I am reading. It’s interesting to me to read the thoughts of other people and their reactions to life’s adventures. Well, this is what I’m going to start with-an introduction of Alyssa Owens, the person behind this blog.

As you can read from my original introduction, I am married with two children. I work full time at Saint Louis University (SLU) and go to school at SLU School for Professional Studies (SPS). But, that’s just the cover to my book, so to speak. Let’s explore more…

I graduated high school in a small Indiana town as Senior Class Vice President in the year 2000. I was accepted to both of my top choice colleges. However, I realized as I attended my first year of college at Indiana University that I was not quite ready to make that big, mature step to being a college student.

To make a long story short, I dropped out of I.U. with a horrific GPA, started working fulltime, and started my own little family. Throughout life’s journey, my husband and I decided to move to the St. Louis area. I started working at SLU and found out that I could attend college. At first I was skeptical that SLU would accept me because of my previous bump in the road at I.U., but SPS made me feel welcome from the get-go.

I enrolled in my first two classes at SLU, which were Public Speaking (yikes!) and Math (double yikes!). I made the Dean’s List my first couple of semesters here at SPS and have felt such a sense of belonging and purpose in my life ever since. In contrast to I.U.’s large lecture classes, I found that SPS classes were small, intimate, and allowed me to connect with my professors and other students.

I chose to major in Criminal Justice and found that to be the right choice for me after taking Introduction to Criminal Justice. One of our projects for that class was to do a field work project; I chose to ride along with a police officer. Let me tell you that I had such a blast and can’t wait to do it for real! Although I know that I still have a year and a half to go to finish my undergraduate degree, and some personal and physical goals to accomplish in that time, without SPS, I would not have these goals or a real thought that I could do anything valuable with my life, aside from being a wife and mother.

So, in a nutshell, this is the first chapter in the book of my story at SPS. I hope to be able to provide some insight into how it is to work full time, go to school full time, and have a family. It can be done. I’m doing it, and I see my fellow student peers doing it too! Until next time…

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