Gayle McNett, school counselor at Burlington School, received her master's degree from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in December. As a mom of four children, going back to college was not the easiest, trying to juggle family, work and school all at once. However, she was excited and enjoyed what she was learning, which made it a lot easier.

Receiving her masters of education in school counseling took her two and a half years to complete the 42-hour program. The most difficult part for her was having to miss out on time with family to make sure her assignments were finished. She spent many late nights doing homework after the kids went to bed.

She said, "While it may have been more convenient to finish the program before I had children, I hope my children were able to see that difficult goals can be accomplished with hard work." She shared that the most significant thing she learned is that students' past trauma can have much more of a significant impact on academic and social emotional growth than most of us realize.