WAAT grad juggled studies, jobs, motherhood to reach goal
Devon Bond isn’t your typical graduating honor student.
“I’m a mom ” she says, matter-of-factly. “I have a 3-year-old son (Asher) and I work two jobs while going to school.”
Motherhood, working two jobs to make ends meet and a heavy class load can each be overwhelming. Often schoolwork is the first area to get cut when it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day to make it all work.
Bond refused to allow that to happen – in fact, she sped up the process.
“If anything, being a mom has grounded me more than anything else that has ever happened in my life,” she said. “From the beginning I have been determined to get a college education to provide for my son.”
She credits having a strong support network for making it all work – starting with her own mom. And the Washington Academy of Arts and Technology, the alternative high school in the East Valley School District, made the schedule fit.
“It’s a relatively new school and a lot of the classes are online so I could do my schoolwork around my schedule,” she said. “I changed over to take most of my classes at Spokane Community College as part of the Running Start program, so I will graduate high school with my associate of arts degree.”
Planning for college, however, proved to be a bit of a challenge.
“Being a new school there wasn’t a counselor available to help me find opportunities and programs that would help me,” she said. “We finally got a full-time counselor this year. It was a little too late to help me, but I know it will help the next class that comes in.”
Not one to let circumstances stand in her way, Bond found her own opportunities and charted her own academic course. She is set to enroll at the University of Washington in the fall.
“Right now, I’m thinking I want to study environmental science, but that I may change my mind and go for more of a straight social sciences degree,” she said.
Making it all work should prove to be easier on the Montlake campus.
“Part of my financial aid package at the UW includes money for child care, and they have child care and day care all on campus to help make it easier,” she said. “The UW is very conscientious about the challenge of being both a student and a parent and are geared toward making it work.
“We’re moving to Seattle in September, but it’s a little scary. I have a great support network here between my mom and my friends. I won’t have that over there.”