During my higher education, I shifted between the University of Jordan and the Pontifical Catholic University in America. I had to pause for 15 years due to marriage and having 4 children. During these years, what saddened me most was that when I filled out the parental data form that my children brought from school to answer on mother's educational level: high school.
I relocated to Oman and heard about the opening of a branch of the Arab Open University in Muscat. Being as my youngest child became in third grade and the AOU scheme was highly flexible, I was quick to enroll in the university and was able to graduate three years later with a GPA of 4.
In my senior year, I collaborated with the English Department to establish a writing center at the university and ran it on a part-time basis. About 5 years later, as the center evolved into the student support center (SSC), I enrolled in the MBA program and graduated with distinction. I'm currently working as a part-time tutor at the university in addition to my work at the SSC.
A few weeks after I graduated, my youngest daughter, who grow into a high school senior, brought a parental data form, and I cried as I filled out for the last time the mother's school-level data: Master.
Entesar Sami Abu Al-Rub
Student Support Center
Arab Open University\ Oman