Another mountain to climb
I’ve been spending the last few months working on my book about the student mindset for older people. So I thought this week I would share one of the profiles I’ve written about older students and their education journeys.
At the beginning of every quarter in grad school when she got the syllabus, Janna Boehm would have a good cry.
“I was very scared. I did have impostor syndrome,” she said. “I thought, I can’t do this. I’m not this smart.”
Boehm had spent more than a decade as a high school history teacher at the beginning of her career. But she stepped away to raise her family after marrying a man with three young children, and having one of her own.
After a few years, she took a job at a mall boutique, just to have some human contact with people above 7 years old.
“I’m just a lover of people. I needed to talk to people,” she said. “My husband encouraged me to find a job that would bring me joy.”
That was the first step in her “student mindset” journey. She spent a lot of time at her retail job just talking to customers about their lives. What did they do for work? What did they love about it? What did they hate about it?
All those conversations, and a lot of self-reflection, led her to the conclusion that she wanted to get back into education. Not as a teacher, but as a student advisor. Not at the high school level, but at the college level.
The obvious place to do that was at University of Wisconsin-Madison, the hub of higher education in the entire state. But the competition for jobs she was interested in was fierce. All her research and talking to people led her to conclude that a master’s degree would be necessary if she was to have any future at the UW.
She took a job as a librarian’s assistant at Edgewood High School, a local Catholic institution. After working there a year, she was eligible for a major discount on her master’s program in the consortium of Catholic institutions.
“Everything was intentional. I wasn’t going to make a move unless it was going to bring me to the next step,” Boehm said.
Which led to a remote master’s program with Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee.
Another mountain to climb.
“I was the underdog in the course. It was a degree in higher ed student affairs. So a lot of the people were already working in an institution. I was not working at an institution then,” she said.
Plus, she was still working, and raising four young children.
Mom guilt was a thing. She blocked off Wednesday nights and Sundays for schoolwork, because she knew if she didn’t have a strict schedule, there would always be other demands on her time and attention.
“There would be little fingers under the door on Sundays,” she said.
Financial stress was a thing. Her job at the Edgewood High School library had low pay, and even at a discount, tuition was a commitment. But for Boehm all the stress and worry was worth it if it would make a better life for her and her family.
“We really had to hold our breath quite a bit,” she said. “But I knew that it wasn’t forever.”
One of the biggest keys, Boehm said, was to set priorities in her life. As complicated as that might seem, for her it was pretty simple.
“I’m going to still try to be a great mom, and a good employee, and an OK student,” she said.
Perfectionism was another potential enemy during her grad school career. She did have those start-of-the-term good cries. But once she settled into the classwork, she saw that her fellow students, many older like her, were not stars outshining her. They were all on equal footing. That helped her feel more confident.
Even after graduating from her master’s program in 2019, there were more steps to take on her path.
Boehm took a job as a student advisor at Edgewood College, a system she was familiar with after her library job, and an institution often used as a stepping stone to the University of Wisconsin.
After a year at Edgewood, she applied for 16 jobs at UW-Madison.
Out of those 16 applications, she got one interview. And after that interview, she got the job.
Boehm said constant networking was key to her evolution through these stages. Over the years she stayed in touch with a lot of people in education at different levels, and continuously got their feedback about her next move. Step by step by step.
“Get a tribe together. They don’t have to be your best friends. But you need to surround yourself with people who believe in you,” she said.
Another key, she said, was a willingness to accept some pain in the short term for a long-term benefit. Long days, self doubt, and some good cries – it was all worth it for where she is now.
“This isn’t forever. This is just for now,” she said.
Most importantly is just to get started. When she was beginning her journey to get her masters, one of the members of her support group told her: a year from today, you would wish you had started today.
“I always say, you can’t get movement unless you make movement,” Boehm said. “You have to push the cart forward.”