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Carol Muñiz’s classmates at Temple University Ambler have something in common with her oldest child — they’re both attending college.
Now 44, married to Lorenzo with two boys, Lorenzo, 18, and Anthony, 15, Muñiz made an unlikely freshman when she returned to the classroom almost four years ago. In many respects the decision was an effort to “pave the road” toward career goals that had taken a stumble a few years prior.
“I had been working at the Goddard School in Collegeville as a teaching assistant, helping in the school’s daycare facility while my kids were at school. Goddard needed a person to manage the day-to-day operations of the daycare center; they wanted me to do it,” she said. “The rules, however, were that the position required some college and I didn’t have a thing at the time, not one college course. They said ‘We definitely want to put you there, but we simply can’t.’”
That was never going to happen again.
“From past experience from all of my jobs, I knew I wanted to be involved with people. To understand a company, to understand where it is going, you have to learn about the people working there and you have to determine who the right people are for a given job,” she said. “I want to work locally for a company where I can make a difference.”
After attending classes part time at Montgomery County Community College in addition to working for the local chapter of the United Way, Muñiz decided the best way to tackle college, was to approach it full tilt. She is now attending classes full time at Temple University Ambler.
“My kids are older now; I don’t necessarily have to be home when they get home. I wanted to fully concentrate on what I was doing and do it well,” she said. “I didn’t want to be a 2.9 or 3.0 student. I wouldn’t even be here without the support of my husband and my kids. Let’s give credit where credit is due — they put up with a lot!”
Coming to Ambler, it didn’t take Muñiz long to acclimate to her new surroundings, nor her new classmates.
“The students treat me like I’m one of their regular friends. It’s only later on that they discover that I’m a mother of two children that are almost their peers,” she said. “They’ve always been very helpful to me.”
Such as the invaluable assistance given to figure out just how her TIE3 calculator, used heavily in finance classes, functioned.
“If you can’t work that calculator, you are doomed. Basically I asked the other students to show me how to use it again and again, and they were always willing to take the time,” Muñiz said. “That kind of help is reciprocated. Sometimes they’ll have time-management issues. I help them learn how to plan out a day or plan out projects.”
And without a plan, Muñiz might just be lost on any given day.
“I stick to my schedule; I have to. Once I have a schedule planned out, I don’t steer off course,” she said. “At 5:30 a.m., I know where I’m going to be at 11 p.m.”
Of course sometimes days don’t go quite as planned. On a recent Tuesday, her older son, Lorenzo, broke his nose while playing football between classes at Shippensburg University.
“My (younger) son is in Catholic school and there was no class for six days at the beginning of the year. That ruined my planned schedule,” Muñiz said. “I had to zip out of class at 2:30 p.m. just to get him to practice. Both sons were in varsity sports and between myself and my husband, we never miss any games.”
During the fall semester, Muñiz is fully entrenched in her major courses, such as Human Resource Management and Public Policy and Human Resource Organization and Staffing in addition to a Spanish class and Modern American Social History.
Additionally, Muñiz has taken on the mantle of president of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) student professional organization.
“During my first semester at Temple I joined SHRM. I learned through life that it’s often not what you know but whom you work with and how you connect with them. If you don’t make connections outside of the classroom, you’re really missing out on half of the experience,” she said. “We hold out meetings the first and third Wednesday of every month.”
In September, Muñiz attended the senior breakfast with the Fox School of Business and Management, held on the Main Campus on September 19 — the day Hurricane Alison hit.
“Back in February, I had attended the internship breakfast at the Main Campus on the day where something like the storm of the century hit,” she said with a laugh. “My kids joke that every time I go downtown, a natural disaster strikes.”
As mid-term exams approach, Muñiz can’t help but think a bit further ahead to May.
“I’m definitely walking down the aisle. My husband, sons, and mother will all be there,” she said. “I’ve already invited my entire neighborhood and everyone who tutored me over the years. They’re the reason I’m where I am today.”
This is the first part of an “A Year in the Life” feature on Carol Muñiz. Carol, 44,graduated with a degree in Human Resource Management at the time of the series.
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