Nursing provides way out

Three years ago, Mark and Sarena Olson were part of a growing demographic called the working poor. The St. Joseph couple struggled to raise four kids on a combined yearly income of $22,000.

Then she quit her job and he lost his. They decided to go on public assistance. It was the only way they both could afford to go to college, Sarena said.

“There was no way to go to school, have four children and work full time, and so we were able to get enough benefits to survive.” she said.

Sarena’s mother, Diane Pace, had started college a semester earlier. Diane found herself having to assume the role of main family provider after her husband, Gary, became disabled in a work accident. She encouraged Serena to go back to school.

“I said ‘If I can do it, you can do it,’” Diane said.

They both did it. Mother and daughter received their college diplomas from Missouri Western State University.

Sarena received a nursing degree. Her mother was awarded an accounting degree. Both were on the school honor roll.

“I can honestly say it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I can also say it was the most worthwhile thing I’ve done,” Sarena said.

For three years, the Olson family lived a meager existence with an extra helping of hardship. They lived on $388 a month and food stamps. Family and friends and the kindness of strangers in community agencies helped out, too.

Mark said it was hard at times, having to stand in line for assistance. It was equally embarrassing to use a food stamp card.

“You see somebody you know from school and you’re standing there with your food stamp card. It’s kind of humiliating; you feel kind of low,” he said.

Mark was going to school to get a degree in electronic repair and technology. That goal changed last summer, when he became disabled from injuries he received after falling off their roof, trying to fix a leak. He broke both arms and several bones in his face from the fall. He changed his major to social work, and won’t graduate until 2011.

“I can’t tell you how many nights I cried because there just wasn’t enough,” Sarena said. “Then somehow you make it.”

But the Olsons were determined to break the cycle of poverty that imprisoned their family for generations. Both came from blue-collar families that had always struggled to make ends meet. They came from families where having a job was good, and a high school diploma was good enough.

Many families go on welfare and don’t come out. They become examples of how the welfare system doesn’t work.

Sarena will tell you that it’s not that most people in the welfare system don’t care. Many can’t find a way out, she said.

“They’re just beaten, beaten by the negativity. They’re beaten by the fact they’re working 40 hours a week and not making enough to live on. That takes a toll on you,” she said. “But I never planned to stay there.”

The Olsons’ oldest daughter, Antoinette, is enrolled in college now. She’s working on a degree in social work, like her father. Sarena said she has a nursing job at Heartland Health and will make enough money that the family will no longer be eligible for public assistance. She also plans to go for her master’s degree.

“I am your tax dollars at work, literally,” Sarena said. “This has been the culmination of our society, of our taxpayers, of our family and our friends.”

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