For years, Chandra Cousin built the life she needed. Eventually, she started thinking about the life she wanted.
Cousin became a mother young and stepped away from college when another pregnancy made continuing school difficult. She explored different roles in construction before building a decade-long career in Louisiana refineries.
After years in the industry, Cousin began thinking about what she wanted her future to look like. Did she want to spend the rest of her career in construction, or was there another path she wanted to pursue?
“I realized I wanted to spend more time with my kids,” she says. But she still wanted to stay active and engaged.
She found a role as a high school paraprofessional and, in doing so, found her next chapter.
"I had a coworker who graduated from UL Lafayette. He said, ‘You should be a teacher like me.’”
The idea stuck. Cousin was ready for a career change, but she didn't want to put her life on hold to make it happen.
At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Cousin built on her existing credits while pursuing her goal of becoming a teacher, fitting online coursework around the life she had already built.
Finishing What Life Interrupted
Cousin knew she would need to earn a bachelor's degree to become a certified teacher.
She decided to start her journey at a local community college to take most of her general education requirements then transfer credits from her associate degree to a degree plan at UL Lafayette.
She held onto her goal, even in the face of grief. Cousin was preparing to celebrate the first milestone of her journey – completing her associate and enrolling at UL Lafayette – when she lost her father.
“I was taking finals,” she says, “I just said, ‘No. I’m going to have to push through.’”
So that's what she did. When Cousin reached out to UL Lafayette Online to begin enrolling in the Bachelor of General Studies program, she connected with enrollment specialist Ashley Birotte, who answered her questions and shared her own experience as a nontraditional student in the program.
“When I heard her story, I just immediately knew this is where I'm supposed to be,” she says. “I felt so at home.”
Along with a dedicated enrollment specialist, students in the online general studies degree program are shepherded to graduation by a University College advisor. These academic advisors are experts in creating degree plans to help students achieve their personal and professional goals.
The program’s interdisciplinary structure allowed Cousin to build on the credits she had already earned while choosing coursework aligned with her goal of becoming a teacher.
Years of working in construction alongside Latino coworkers had sparked an interest in learning and teaching Spanish.
“I told my University College advisor it was very important to me that I minor in Spanish,” she says. “Long story short, they made it happen.”
Though her required curriculum could be completed online, Cousin chose to commute to campus for upper-level Spanish courses to complete her minor.
“It was just the flexibility of it all,” she says. “It was the communication. I don’t have any regrets.”
Making Good on the Promise
Cousin fit school into whatever hours life left open.
At 5 a.m., she might log in before work. She might pick back up after her children were settled at 10 or 11 at night. Sometimes her laptop went to work with her so she could make progress wherever she found time.
“You can live a very busy life and still go to college,” she says.
And life stayed busy.
In addition to the challenge of raising two children while balancing school and work, Cousin faced a string of challenges. Her 21-year-old niece was diagnosed with breast cancer. Two car accidents followed. Then an abnormal mammogram brought a cancer scare of her own.
There were semesters when Cousin felt like she had nothing left to give.
“I remember looking in the mirror, exhausted, saying, ‘I don’t have the energy to do what I’m doing,’” she says.
“My mentor would say, ‘Chandra, you say that every semester, and every semester you’re on the president’s list.’”
So she kept going. And when Cousin finally walked across the graduation stage, her children were there to see it.
Years after putting her own education on hold to raise a family, she was showing them that the dreams you set aside don't have to stay there.
“I cried, but I didn’t give up,” she says. “Even when it was hard, I still pushed through.”
Today, she teaches math while preparing to become certified to teach Spanish. She also shares her journey, hoping students see more than a teacher standing in front of them.
“I want to mentor and encourage them,” Cousin says. “I want to share my life and story and inspire them to reach for the stars.”
After all, her own story took a few turns to get there.
“It’s inspiring to let people know you have more than one way to get where you want to be in life,” she says.
Build on where you’ve been with UL Lafayette’s online general studies program.