Upon graduating from UNC-Asheville with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Sociology and Philosophy, I was certain that I would pursue an advanced degree - most likely a law degree.  Less than six years later I was working in local government and thoroughly enjoying applying my education to a field unknown to me before 1998, Child Support.  This field is a hybrid between social work, paralegal studies and law enforcement.  I began to rationalize that I no longer wanted or needed an advanced degree and held to this belief for many, many years.  My professional knowledge within my field and hard work had led me to numerous wonderful opportunities during my local government career.  I would often say to others that even if I had a Ph.D. my salary would be the same because local government pay scales do not reward education.  In 2015 I began to research higher education with my son, a then high school junior.  I began to realize that my own educational goals had not been achieved, and the prospect of a larger salary should never be the sole motivator for furthering education.

 

In 1992 I chose UNC-Asheville to pursue my undergraduate degree.  It was pretty far away from my family and friends and in a region that I had never even visited.  Most of my friends attended UNC-Chapel Hill or UNC-Greensboro, but the small class size and culture at North Carolina’s only public liberal arts university appealed to me.  It was a whole new world!  To complete my humanities requirements I had to attend and prepare written reflections on various events that were broadly called “cultural events.”  During my first semester I saw my first ballet, attended worship at a synagogue and a mosque and attended a lecture by a white supremacist.  Each UNC-Asheville graduate is required to complete an interdisciplinary liberal arts core that develops critical thinking skills, makes you aware of the world around you, builds listening skills to fully hear viewpoints that are different from your own, explore, question and fine-tune your ethics, and start the groundwork for you to be a responsible global citizen for life.  One of the main concepts is understanding that learning is a lifelong process and your education is ongoing.  Despite constant specialized learning for my job and occasional scholarly reading within the Sociology and Philosophy fields, I realized that the education obtained while pursuing my master’s degree would be the best supplement to pursue my education goals.

 

I began my career in local government at the Department of Social Services (DSS) in 1998 as a Child Support Agent II.  The mission for the program was simple: “To consistently collect as much child support as possible for the benefit of North Carolina’s children.”  Though the mission was straightforward and simple, working with families to achieve the goal was not.  Explaining the legal processes and barriers to collecting support while simultaneously expressing that the department does not have the authority to handle child custody issues have been ongoing challenges.  Early in my career I became involved in the Governor’s Fatherhood Initiative and many ideas were brainstormed to best assist fathers during the child support process.  Many of the ideas from those early years have been implemented and changed the course of how business is conducted.  We are now transitioning to the name Child Support Services instead of Child Support Enforcement since we now provide a broader range of services such as referrals to employment and training for obligors.  In my nearly twenty years as a public servant I have been promoted to Child Support Supervisor II in 2002, Income Maintenance Program Administrator/Program Manager in 2010 and Assistant Director of Child Support Services in 2017.  Each promotion brought new opportunities and challenges.  The implementation of NCFAST from 2012-2015 presented the greatest opportunity to utilize my education and training, while providing an increased level of  service to the public.  

 

The issues with NCFAST, the computer system used to administer federally mandated programs such as Food and Nutrition Services, Medicaid, Work First and Special Assistance, were well documented by local media sources.  DSS offices across the state struggled to get the needed benefits to families.  Doctors’ offices were turning away Medicaid patients and Food Banks were frantically requesting donations to assist families that could not access food benefits.  During those times, critical thinking, empathy, effective communication and collaborative skills were fully utilized as I daily led actions to meet the needs of the citizens while balancing the stress levels of the employees.  Currently, in my role as Assistant Director, I must look for creative approaches to provide services within the budget allocations.  The application of my liberal arts education is a natural process as I tackle daily tasks. 

 

Since 2015 I have known that I wanted to expand my formal education and pursue a master’s degree, but I could not find a program that would assist me with my personal and professional goals.  As I interviewed an applicant for a position within DSS in late 2016, she mentioned the Master of Liberal Arts program at UNC-Greensboro as a possible five year goal for herself.  The term “liberal arts” piqued my interest and I decided to research the program.

 

The program at UNC-Greensboro seemed to be a natural extension of my undergraduate experience and I was immediately interested, but I had to make sure that I had the qualifications, time and finances to pursue this goal.  When I changed employers in 2017, I noted that one of my benefits was an educational assistance program and my husband encouraged me to pursue this next step.  Of course, the program is now the Master’s in Applied Arts and Sciences, but I am even more intrigued by the opportunity to “inspire and empower” myself.  The “Applied Arts and Sciences” distinction seems to more adequately describe how this type of education is vital to problem solving.  The components of the program strongly align with my background in liberal arts and my aspiration to acquire an education that can be applied to my personal and professional life.  Additionally, as I prepare for a possible second career after retirement from local government in the next decade, I want to further develop my transformative thinking skills and continue my lifelong learning. I would welcome the opportunity to reach these goals at UNC-Greensboro through the Master’s in Applied Arts and Sciences program.