The Point Foundation, the nation’s largest publicly-supported scholarship organization for LGBT students, last week announced its Point Scholars for 2007. Point Scholars receive financial support, leadership training, and mentoring from the Foundation after undergoing a rigorous selection process—in 2006, only 1% of applicants were chosen. The Foundation “[pays] particular attention to those students who have lost the financial and social support of their families and/or communities as a result of revealing their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
This year’s winners included Tina Owen of Wisconsin, who is not only a student but also a mother, teacher and founder of a school for LGBT youth. She is currently working towards a degree in Administrative Leadership at Alverno College. Tina was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions for Mombian readers about education, balancing school and motherhood, and creating a safe environment for all students.
What will the impact of the Point Foundation Scholarship be on your family as a whole?
My partner and I have five wonderful kids that we love very much, but as you know, raising children is expensive. I am a school teacher and my partner/ wife is a free-lance editor and a school board director. These are not high-paying jobs, but we are doing what we love and making a difference in our communities. I have always told my children that they will have to work hard and earn scholarships for college, because a teacher’s salary simply won’t cover a college education. This scholarship will save us from years of college debt, but will also show our children that it is possible to earn scholarships if you work hard and make the effort of applying.
How do you balance your time as a mother and student?
My wife, Jennifer, is wonderful. We work well together and make sure that we save time for our children and for each other, even in our busy lives. We don’t have a television in the house. I think that helps. It’s so easy to get drawn in to the television world when it’s around, so we choose not to have one, and the kids are healthy, happy individuals. I also try to choose classes and programs that work with my family’s schedules. When they were younger, I took classes while they were in school and did most of my studying after they went to sleep. But I think it’s good for them to see me studying, also, because education is something I value and I want them to value, as well.
How did becoming a mom at a young age influence your choices in education and/or employment? How has your being a student influenced your daughter?
I didn’t even know that college was an option for me at first. I was married at 16 and divorced at 17. I spent a lot of time during those early years just trying to find myself and make ends meet. My mom was a wonderful person, but she was not going to support me and a grandchild. I had to do that myself. So I never thought much about continuing my education. It wasn’t until four years after high school, when I was doing childcare in my tiny apartment, that I thought about going to college. I always knew I was smart, but I didn’t know how to go to college. So I looked up “university” in the phone book, called the nearest one to my house and asked them what I had to do to apply, and then started studying for the SAT test. When I was accepted at Marquette University it was one of the happiest days of my life. I know that these choices were the best choices for my daughter and for all of my children. Felicia is 18 now and getting ready to go to college in Miami where she will be studying International Relations and Arabic. I am so proud of her! I hope that seeing me accomplish what I’ve accomplished has given her some of that courage and the belief that she can accomplish anything she sets her mind on.
You started The Alliance School, dedicated to serving the needs of LGBT youth and others who experience harassment. Not all students have this option, though. In your opinion, what are the top two or three things mainstream schools should be doing to reduce harassment?
First, I think there has to be a lot of training for teachers, staff and administrators in schools. So much of the discrimination and harassment I saw in a large high school either came from the adults in the building or was reinforced by the adults when they didn’t address the harassment.
Second, I think schools should create environments where students get to know each other. There is a saying from the Dalai Lama, its says “If you can see yourself in others, whom can you harm?” Much of what we do at The Alliance School is built around sharing stories and forming community. This is missing in the traditional “sit in rows and do your book work” classrooms.
Finally, one of the things that we do at Alliance is we have a Student Discipline Council. This is a group of students who meet with students who are continuously getting into trouble or who harass another student. The Discipline Council talks to them, finds out why it’s going on, gives consequences to the student who is brought before the council, and they mentor the student to be better. One of the thing’s they’ve noticed is that usually when a student is getting into trouble, there is something bigger going on it that child’s life. Sometimes the peers can help or share ideas for where the student can get help.
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were first starting college?
I wish I had known how college worked. I didn’t even know what a bachelor’s degree was when I started! I also wish I had known that there were scholarships out there that I could apply for. The internet was a pretty new thing when I started, so information about scholarships was a little harder to find.
What is the most important thing you hope your daughter will get out of her own education?
I hope she’ll enjoy the learning as much as I did, and I hope it will lead her into a career that she will love.
(Photo of Tina Owen (r) and daughter (l), courtesy Tina Owen.)