Every Detour Counted
Sandra Soucie's educational journey didn't follow a straight line.
It followed life.
Growing up in a small rural community, Sandra excelled academically and earned a full-tuition college scholarship. She arrived on campus full of confidence, eager to experience a world far larger than the one she had always known.
Then reality arrived.
A demanding course load, financial pressures, and the loss of her scholarship forced her to work thirty to forty hours each week just to stay enrolled. At one point, when the residence halls closed for the summer, she slept in her car and relied on gym showers while trying to keep her education alive.
Eventually, exhausted and uncertain of her future, she walked away from college.
For years, life unfolded in unexpected directions.
Motherhood, marriage, demanding jobs, and raising three children repeatedly took priority over finishing her degree. Yet every time education seemed out of reach, the dream quietly remained.
"I just knew there was more for me—for us."
That realization led Sandra to enroll in a degree program designed for working adults. Balancing family, work, and evening classes wasn't easy. Working overnight as a 911 dispatcher, she convinced her supervisor to let her use the department's computer after quiet shifts to complete school assignments in exchange for writing the department's first standard operating procedures manual.
Six years after first leaving college, Sandra walked across the stage to earn her bachelor's degree.
It changed everything.
Her degree opened the door to her first professional leadership position in human resources and, later, an unexpected opportunity to lead a local housing authority.
Then another detour appeared.
While sorting mail one morning, Sandra discovered a fully funded master's program in public policy through the University of Maryland—but the application deadline had already passed.
Instead of accepting defeat, she picked up the phone.
The deadline had just been extended.
Weeks later, she found herself driving 1,400 miles away from her husband and three children to complete the one-year program. As she pulled away, her youngest daughter clung tightly to her, making the decision almost unbearable.
To keep herself moving forward, Sandra repeated one thought.
"This isn't just about me. This is about showing my kids what's possible."
She earned her master's degree in December 2001.
Today, after more than three decades in affordable housing leadership, Sandra has helped thousands of families find stable housing and brighter futures. Looking back, she realizes every interruption, disappointment, and unexpected turn prepared her for work that perfectly matched her purpose.
Her story reminds us that detours don't always take us away from our destination.
Sometimes they become the very road that leads us there.
Sandra Soucie is one of fifty adult learners featured in Beyond the Degree: Stories of Adult Learner Comebacks and What They Teach Us. Read her complete story in her own words, and discover what these remarkable comebacks teach us, in the book from the Center for Academic Innovation.