{"id":9036,"date":"2023-01-30T08:36:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T14:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=9036"},"modified":"2023-01-30T08:36:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T14:36:04","slug":"uw-green-bay-one-working-moms-homework-kids-covid-and-a-bsn-2","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-green-bay-one-working-moms-homework-kids-covid-and-a-bsn-2\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Green Bay: One working mom\u2019s homework\u2014kids, COVID and a BSN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Without question, Lisa Pawlak is driven. As one of the hundreds of students graduating this winter at UW-Green Bay\u2019s commencement ceremony, Lisa\u2019s path to earn her bachelor of science in nursing speaks to the tenacious, problem-solving nature of a UW-Green Bay student.<\/p>\n

Lisa has completed her degree while working full time as a registered nurse at the VA hospital and being engaged and available for her incredibly supportive husband and six (yes, six) children.<\/p>\n

Her path started with a registered nursing degree at the local community college near Iron Mountain, Michigan. As a single mom, the thought of pursuing a four-year degree wasn\u2019t feasible. After working for 10 years, (and getting married, and having more children) she started researching options for obtaining her BSN. \u201cI heard really good things about the UW-Green Bay nursing program from talking with other nurses,\u201d said Pawlak. She also learned that UW-Green Bay\u2019s BSN program offers a fully online option which for Pawlak, who lives close to two hours north of Green Bay, was perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like a good fit, and the option of fully online was very appealing. Working fulltime and having six kids, I needed that flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her biggest fear? \u201cI was apprehensive about being back in a classroom after 10 years,\u201d says Pawlak. She questioned whether she would be able to keep up with the technology and more than anything, the overall manageability of her schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started out slow, taking one class at a time. Once I realized that I could manage the classes plus work and family, I bumped up the pace a little bit.\u201d The VA hospital helped out with a scholarship program and she was on her way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, wow, I can really do this!\u201d She was impressed that the program was tailored to busy RNs working 12-hour shifts and weekends. Even when the pandemic hit, Pawlak persevered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking and going to school during a pandemic was very difficult. Schools shut down, some of our family became sick with Covid, and still having to work in the VA\u2019s long-term care area where we were one of the first people to start masking and testing, played into the stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what advice she would share with someone considering continuing their education, \u201cI would say \u2018go for it!\u2019 One of the nurses I worked with was inspired to get her masters after seeing me pursue my bachelors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids are excited for me to be done, although I do plan to go back for masters,\u201d said Pawlak. Her kids have been cheering for their Mom while she\u2019s worked towards this degree, and her husband had been encouraging and supportive since day one. \u201cThey like talking about it and telling people and have developed good study habits. They [the kids] like doing homework where I do my homework.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best example, indeed.<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Kristin Bouchard<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/news.uwgb.edu\/featured\/12\/16\/one-working-moms-homework-kids-covid-and-a-bsn\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without question, Lisa Pawlak is driven. As one of the hundreds of students graduating this winter at UW-Green Bay\u2019s commencement ceremony, Lisa\u2019s path to earn her bachelor of science in nursing speaks to the tenacious, problem-solving nature of a UW-Green Bay student. Lisa has completed her degree while working full time as a registered nurse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-9036","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/9036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=9036"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=9036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}