Student and mother of three Jennifer Baker opened up about her experience as a single parent while pursuing her academic goals.
During Baker’s third pregnancy, she attended counseling at the Women’s Shelter of Long Beach on two separate occasions.
Baker received therapeutic help from a clinical psychologist who influenced her to become a therapist herself and work toward her Phd or Sci.D in psychology.
Baker said the reason for restarting her education is so she can become a therapist because she said she enjoys talking and helping people.
“Me going back to school was to help people. Me going back to school and being with these groups with these women that are all types of different socioeconomic backgrounds that have, you see people with these different mindsets and I wanted to go back to school because I was never encouraged in school. I didn’t graduate. This was a really big deal for me to graduate because I didn’t graduate,” Baker explained.
Before coming to LBCC, Baker worked as a hairdresser after giving birth to her first son. She chose to go to beauty school after her first attempt at LBCC when she was a young adult.
Due to a neck injury from a yoga accident, Baker was not able to be a hair consultant anymore.
With the support of her family, Baker decided to take a second chance to earn her degree during her third pregnancy.
“I feel like mom going back to school is good because she would tell me a lot about how she screwed up while she had me. I stopped her from going down any darker and deeper. I feel like this is her redemption,” said Noah Baker, the eldest son.
When Baker returned to her studies in Spring 2017, she had a hard time adjusting to academic life and said she was skeptical about whether she would make it through the first semester.
“I felt like I couldn’t do it. I had to start over in pre algebra and remedial english and my son who has autism had like…I could remember being in class and the school calling me, telling me that he’s suicidal. A lot of the abuse that happened, my oldest son experienced, his autism and the trauma overlapped and so, can I be in this class? I can remember taking my first final and my son had just gotten in trouble or something had happened and it’s just like, how am I going to do this?” Baker shared.
Baker’s three sons are her eldest Noah, her second child Herman and her youngest, Andrew.
Not long ago, the family found out that Baker’s eldest son is diagnosed with Apsergers. She does help her eldest son, Noah, work with his autism by having him attend therapy.
“Sometimes I want to cry and scream because it’s just something super overwhelming at times because his school, he has a lot of school issues when they call me and tell me what’s going on, it makes me upset. Sometimes at him, sometimes at that school, sometimes at his autism. It’s terrible. It’s very challenging to balance that, “ Jennifer Baker explained.
Going back to college has allowed Baker to grow as an individual and become a better parent to her children.
Baker spreads out enough time to spend with her children individually so that none of them feel alone.
Despite finding it difficult to make time, Baker works through it all because she said she knows she cannot afford to leave school because she wants a better financial stability for her family.
“I had to pay for someone to watch the baby so I could do and an hours worth of homework. I have to take him to doctors appointments and therapists. I have to go to a meeting for all my kids or for [Noah and Herman] at the school,” Baker said.
Most of the time, Baker receives support from her mother Linda Baker when she needs somebody to assist her with her sons.
“It’s very challenging. [Andrew’s] quite a handful. I try to redirect him or move him around an we walk the dogs 2-3 times a day. I try to do my best and let her do her homework and stuff,” Linda Baker expressed.
Baker is as an LBCC president ambassador. She applied for the ambassador position five weeks after she returned to and she gave birth to her third child, Andrew.
“There’ll be school events and we get to go volunteer. I get to have a voice in things that I feel that are important for the college students like it gives me a bigger platform to help students out or my fellow peers by telling them the events that the school puts on/ There’s a lot of special resources that the school has. I think that people are really shy or embarrassed or don’t know. So I’m able to help in the leadership role. I get to be able to meet the Long Beach Foundation, the people that create scholarships,” Baker explained.
One of the opportunities the ambassador position offers is the 4th grade tours program that LBCC arranges on each Friday.
Baker talks with the children and provides them with information about the College Promise 2.0, how they can utilize the college promise and learn the process of working through the college semester.