Nassau Community College student credits her son for her return to school

Sometimes a student needs a motivating idea to propel her across the college commencement stage. For Kimberly Canas, 28, it was a little baby.

She gives credit to her son Luke, now 2, for returning her to the Nassau Community College campus she’d briefly attended as a 21-year-old veteran of the Marine Corps and what she said was an abusive early marriage.

Next Wednesday she will receive an associate degree in accounting. That personal triumph will happen as college and university grads and those applauding them fill stadiums, arenas, performance halls and tents across Long Island for commencement ceremonies, which will largely take place over the next two weeks.

In the fall, Canas plans to resume her studies at Hofstra University, aiming for a master’s in business administration.

“My son is definitely my motivation, as cliché as it sounds,” said Canas, who lives in Island Park and has worked as a dental office manager and bartender. “I was doing fine at work, but when I had him I wanted him to know I went to school, and it’s hard but not impossible to get a degree.

"I feel like I have a lot more to lose if I don’t do well in school compared to some of the other kids in my school who are 18, 19 years old and don’t have any responsibilities.”

Since returning to college last year, she has attended classes nonstop: “fall, winter, spring and all the summer sessions to catch up. It was definitely tough but I made the dean’s list twice,” she said.

On class days, she would leave her house at 7 a.m. and drop her son off at the campus day care center, the Children’s Greenhouse.

At 10:45 a.m., it was time to rush to work in Rockville Centre, returning after 4:30 p.m. to retrieve her son and go home for dinner, their nighttime routine and homework, she said.

“So I’m bouncing like bing, bing, bing all day long. … It’s like Mother’s Day every day, except with more coffee.”

The day care providers, she said, “have honestly been like my rock ever since I found them. I don’t think I could have done my schooling without them. I am so grateful for that day care.”

Janet Walsh, the director of the Children's Greenhouse, noted the challenges that student-parents face in their quest to succeed in college. "They often juggle school, work and child care, and having an affordable, quality, on-site campus child care program like the Children's Greenhouse is an invaluable resource to them." 

Canas will have to figure out a child care schedule along with the rest of her complicated jigsaw puzzle of obligations before the fall semester, and it has been a stressful time, she said.

In 10 years, however, she sees herself living in the Midwest or the South, “and I see myself with my son and my dog and hopefully working for a medium-sized company, which will help me one day open my own accounting company,” she said. “I hope to be somewhere in a normal home, maybe in Texas, that is more affordable.”

She also wants to be present for her son’s concerts and games, in a way her parents couldn’t be as she grew up in Westbury. They had fled El Salvador’s civil war, and their long hours of work meant absences she now understands weren’t by choice but by necessity.

“Both of my parents have a great brain for numbers and business, they just took a backseat in pursuing their dreams to take care of my sister and me,” she said.

Canas knows she has three more years of schooling while working full time and accumulating debts. But she believes in the possibilities of a promising future career.  “I’m happy about the choices I’m making,” she said.

By Carol Polsky

Carol.Polsky@newsday.com

Carol Polsky writes news and features on wide-ranging topics, from superstorm Sandy, 9/11 and presidential elections to health care and the economy.