Not at all your typical soon-to-be college graduate, senior Angela Jaster is excited to graduate this spring with a major in psychology and a minor in art therapy. Twenty-nine years old and a mother of three, she graduated from Siuslaw High School in 1995 and immediately took on the full-time job of being a mother. After various jobs at bookstores, a pizzeria and a movie theater, Jaster underwent a life transition and decided to go back to school. She was intent on making a new life for herself and providing a better life for her children. Jaster is a premier example of a woman who seized all of her opportunities in taking the courageous steps toward changing her life.
Two years spent at Lane Community College is how Jaster first re-entered the academic setting, and in the fall of 2005 she began attending the University of Oregon. Jaster is interested in art therapy, a field that uses art as a medium for counseling and general therapy.
Angela is a Ford Opportunity Scholar – a program established by the Ford Family Foundation for single-parent college students in Oregon. Jaster is one of 50 scholars who showed excellence and potential in academics, demonstrated self-motivation and gave service to the community. Angela Jaster meets and exceeds all the qualities for which the Ford Family Foundation searches.
She plans to take a year off before attending graduate school in 2008. “I’m a little nervous, but I’m excited for the prospect of grad school,” Jaster said. She has created many options for her extended education and plans to decide during her year of vacation from school. Thus far, the best option for her is to attend Portland State University and obtain her master’s degree in its Social Work Program. This plan allows her to stay in Eugene through the Distance Learning Program at PSU. Through this she will become a licensed clinical social worker after achieving her master’s and after two years of supervised work in the community.
This summer she plans to do a large amount of volunteer work. Jaster looks forward to lending her time to “Courageous Kids,” a grief support program run by PeaceHealth that works with children, adolescents and families who come from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. “I am drawn to work with children who have dealt with trauma,” she said. She also plans to volunteer and hopes eventually to work for Womenspace, where she currently answers the 24-hour helpline several times per week. Womenspace is a business designed to end domestic violence by directly helping victims and also through changing community standards. In addition to joining these causes, Jaster also plans to volunteer for UO professor Jennifer Freyd’s Dynamics Lab, which she was also involved with throughout the year.
A crucial aspect of her summer plans is spending time with her children: Grace, 10, Ferne, 7, and Forest, 4. The demanding schedule she has of 17 credits this spring allows for a tight schedule and little room for fun. “I want to take them hiking, camping, to the beach,” Jaster says. “I am just really looking forward to spend some quality time with my children.”
Jaster advocates the use of some helpful student services at the Career Center, which she found helpful during her education at the University. The Career Connections Program helped affirm her career goals by talking to those with experience in her field of interest. “It’s a good way, especially early on, to talk to professionals and find out if it’s really what you want to do,” Jaster says. This one-credit course helps with networking, interviewing skills and résumé building, and includes all departments. The advisers at Student Support Services and Academic Learning Services also aided her in graduation plans and in choosing a class schedule so as to not take any unnecessary courses.
Jaster describes her experience at Oregon as an invaluable one that has allowed her to grow in several ways. “My education at the U of O is impacting my life in incalculable ways,” Jaster said. She has developed a deep determination to succeed, learned self-reliance and the ability to reach out for aid. “Probably the most valuable is the self-confidence I have gained.”
The two professors who had the most influence on Jaster’s time at the University are Pam Birrell and Jennifer Freyd. Professor Birrell, also the Head Undergraduate Adviser in the Psychology Department, challenged Jaster’s own biases and belief system in the courses Psychology of Gender and Culture & Mental Health. Professor Freyd served to direct Jaster’s professional interests in art therapy and trauma survivors through the course Psychology of Trauma. “Both these women are pillars in the UO Psychology Department, and I am grateful for their wisdom.”