Second chances don’t come often in life, so Maria Jimenez doesn’t mind it took more than a decade to get hers.
Jimenez came to Oregon State in the fall of 1994 after graduating from Sandy Union High School, ready to pursue a science degree.
The only impediment was Jimenez was pregnant with her first child. She finished two years at OSU, but decided to leave school to focus on her family.
“I felt I was leaving my family aside for my schooling, and for me family is No. 1,” Jimenez said.
Now a mother of four, Jimenez is back at Oregon State, this time majoring in Business Management and providing a lesson to her children in perseverance and the value of education.
“I realized I started on the wrong foot, but my kids are No. 1,” she said. “They’re why I’m doing my best to set an example and show them education is the way to a better life. I want to show them I can do it.”
While Jimenez waited to make sure her children — Marianita, 19, Evelyn, 16, Lizbeth, 14, and Angel, 12 — were old enough for her to go back, the credits she had earned in her first trip to OSU expired. While discouraging, it also freed her to explore other academic options.
While working at Assurant Solutions in Albany, Jimenez developed an interest in moving up in the company as a manager. After starting in 2005 as a bilingual claims representative, she soon was promoted to a senior claims representative, managing and coaching other employees.
She realized she enjoyed the role, and applied for a supervisory position at the company only to find she needed more advanced education, motivating her to try again for her degree.
“At first, it was discouraging, but it was a wake up call for me, to realize that I needed to take charge of my life,” Jimenez said. “The only way I could advance within the company was putting in more years of managing experience or to continue with higher education.”
She started her journey at Portland State in 2011 before transferring to Oregon State last year. Since then she’s taken an active role in her education, including joining and becoming the chair of the Dean’s Student Leadership Circle at the College of Business, a group of student leaders picked by Dean Ilene Kleinsorge to advise her on topics important to the college.
“I’m delighted to have been named chair of the DSLC because I will have the opportunity to interact not only with Dean Kleinsorge and DSLC members but also with other professionals, enabling me to enhance my leadership skills and broaden my professional network,” Jimenez said.
The commitment means extra time away from her classes and her family, but Jimenez wants to get everything out of her education.
“Before I wasn’t involved in school. It was class, library, home,” she said. “Now I want to get involved. I know I have a busy schedule, but I want to push myself to grow, increase my personal development.”
Jimenez makes sure there’s plenty of time left for her family, though the activities have changed a bit. Eldest daughter Marianita is in college, studying nursing at Linn-Benton Community College, and now the whole family brings schoolwork home at night.
“There are times when we study together, and it’s fulfilling watching my children do their homework next to me at the dinner table,” she said.
Jimenez still faces challenges before her graduation, which she’s expecting will be summer of 2014.
Supporting her education and her family financially has been a struggle at times. Combined with the daily balance of family, school and work, there are some days where Jimenezes’ goal seems out of reach.
Still, she remembers talking to her sister, Luz Maria Jimenez, when she was thinking of delaying her return until her children were just a few years older.
“My sister told me ‘Sis, I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, but is not impossible either, and at the end believe me, it’s going to be worth it, you can do it,” she remembers.
“Her words remain engraved in my heart, and I can never thank her enough, because of her I’m here at OSU to finish what I started more than a decade ago.”