Where Am I Going?

My life is at a standstill while I look for a job in the field of work from which I got my degrees in human services and social work. What I was hoping to do is be a disabled student coordinator and is something I I have wanted to be since I met Lisa Thies my first year in college at Cal State University, Fullerton. She was my coordinator first, then my supervisor, and eventually my friend. The year was 1990 or '91 and I was struggling through my first year in the university and I found I needed help so I turned to Disabled student Services and the first person I met was Lisa, my assigned coordinator of support services, in her wheelchair and bright charming, inviting, friendly, smile. I felt then that if she could get through college so can I despite my disability. I also learned that I have rights as a disabled person to aide me in accomplishing my goals through reasonable accommodations provided under federal laws such as Americans with Disability Act of 1990.

In about 1993 I got an internship and job at the Disabled Student Services office as a student assistant and found that I wanted to do be a Lisa someday. She told me then I would need to get a master's degree to qualify for a job such as hers thus two years after graduating with my bachelors and a year after having my first child I chose to go on to graduate school in social work while my husband was in graduate school getting his Ph.D. in Psychology so that once my husband finished I could get a job at the university in which he is employed. I was hoping that if there was not a job at the university he was at there would be a job at another university nearby -- fat chance of that happening.

My husband ended up at a small university that does not care about the law and squeaks by by assigning people already at the university to deal with the disabled students that need services. I feel that they are saying to others that it is okay to disregard the law if you want to and the law seems to not apply to you. There is no office door or sign that designates a certain place as a starting point for those in need of disabled student services. I am not even sure that many of the professors understand that disabled students with physical, learning, or emotional may need reasonable accommodations that are afforded them by law. By no means does the accommodations mean they get preferential treatment in or outside of class. They simply get what they need to succeed in their college career and hopefully beyond.

This is my situation and I hope to change my luck even if we must step away from the place we have called home for the last nine years. My kids know no other way and I hope that we do not have to uproot them but if I cannot find a job that pays we have no choice because even my husband is faced with not getting enough pay to feed te family. There should be no reason for a person with a Ph.D. to be paid less than many other professions which require less education. I do believe that it would not be such a bad idea to get us out of the middle of nowhere to a place that has a culture but especially to a place that has more respect for the job my husband is capable of doing if given the pay and encouragement he needs.