Jan Dynes of the local PEO chapter with Jolene Moch, the recipient of the PEO Program for Continuing Education grant this year.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
Jolene Moch, fourth-year education student at Medicine Hat College, recently received the PEO Program for Continuing Education grant. The program was established in 1973 to provide grants to women in both the U.S. and Canada who return to school following an interruption in their education. The grant has helped Moch immensely with tuition and other expenses this year as she received the maximum amount of $3,000.
Moch returned to post-secondary education after almost two decades of working and raising children. A graduate from Hat High, she initially pursued a diploma in travel and tourism from MHC before deciding it wasn’t the right path. Moch moved into accounts receivable, working at several trucking companies until the birth of her first child in 2007. A stay-at-home mom for more than seven years, she needed to return to work after separating from her husband. She managed to find employment as an educational assistant at Southview School, which worked well with her children’s school hours.
“I can’t say enough about the Medicine Hat school district, they worked so fluidly with me with my daughter’s schedule,” stated Moch. “I was in the field I loved and thriving in it. I was still able to be at home with my children and have my summers. As a single mom, if I was working 9-5, I would be paying all those big increments for childcare.”
Moch decided to return to MHC in 2019 for a degree in education. Currently, Moch is completing an extended practicum at Dr. Ken Sauer School and will move to full-time hours at the school in January. Teaching a Grade 1 class, her focus has been social building and exploring identity in the first two months.
“I’m pretty proud of my journey, it all happened during COVID, so it was me and my two children all learning online in front of a computer,” stated Moch. “It was like divine intervention and was something I knew I needed to do.”
She wanted her kids to know age doesn’t matter even though finances have been hard.
“They have seen me go without to make sure they are provided for. Because of my dedication to school, my son is in Grade 11 this year and his grades in the last two years have skyrocketed and he holds himself to a higher standard because he sees my late nights.”
Jan Dynes of the local PEO chapter explained, “This is a one-time scholarship made available to exactly what Jolene needed as a mature, returning woman.”
A local committee interviews the applicant before sending the application to head office where it is reviewed by a team.
“From a local perspective, all our PEO scholarships have a lower presence in the community than many other charitable organizations,” continued Dynes. “We sometimes struggle to reach out and get the information to individuals who are going back to school. We want as many people to know about this as possible because we don’t have that many applicants in a year locally.”
PEO has five scholarships they give out on an annual basis, for more information go to the website at peointernational.org, @PEOInternational on Instagram or @PEOSisterhood on Twitter.
