Meet Megan Jasso, an M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration student at Tiffin University who is passionate about equitable, culturally diverse education. She shares how TU’s flexible online program helps her balance work, life and school as a new mom with support from caring faculty. Hear how her daughter keeps her motivated and why returning to school has become a remarkable opportunity she never expected.
The online program… is just incredibly flexible, and that work-life balance was really important. You can still have a job, you can still have a life, and you can be a student, and you can go to school. It’s been incredible.
Transcript:
My name is Megan Jasso, and I am in the Higher Education Administration program at Tiffin. So I really resonated with the goal of equitable education for people. I’ve always thought that that’s really important, and they [TU] strive towards cultural diversity and really allowing their students to experience a world from the tiny town in Ohio.
The online program specifically is what stood out to me the most. It’s just incredibly flexible, and that work-life balance was really important. You can still have a job, you can still have a life, and you can be a student, and you can go to school. It’s been incredible. I’m going part-time, so I’m only taking one class at a time, and that has been just perfect with the work-life balance.
I gave birth to my daughter last year, and while still going to school, and that would not have been possible if it weren’t for the staff and the faculty at Tiffin. One of my instructors literally was emailing him from the delivery room, saying, “Hey, I’m about to give birth to my daughter. My homework’s going to be late. I hope that’s OK.” And he was very understanding, congratulatory, and personable. All of the faculty that I’ve dealt with have been very understanding. And that’s been the biggest thing.
My daughter keeps me motivated. I’m doing it for her, for future opportunities for people in education, just in general, but especially for her. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of patience, a lot of perseverance, and a lot of time management. I have one class left, and so the class will end right around the same time that I celebrate her first birthday, and that’s a really cool milestone to be able to have.
It was never on my radar to go back to school, but if you want to do it, make it work, put the time and the effort into it, and be patient, but it pays off. It’s been pretty remarkable to be able to pursue something that I didn’t think I’d get the opportunity to do before.