Saturday, December 14, 2019

Credit without Credentials


My mom is the Senior Executive Assistant for the Deputy Chancellor of San Jacinto Community College in the Greater Houston area. It sounds like a fancy, super important title of someone who is extremely educated. I’m not saying that my mother isn’t intelligent and amazing at her job, because she is and she is known by those that work with her as someone who is very good at their job and always makes sure every small detail is covered, but she doesn’t have a college degree. She never attended college and never got her associate’s degree, much less a bachelor’s.

It is almost as though she has a talked of self that portrays a person who is college educated, while her unexpressed self knows that she does not have a degree. Many of her coworkers believe she has a degree even though she does not and are surprised when they find out she doesn’t. Many of the people throughout the college that she works and communicates with have doctorates or masters, and almost all of them have bachelor’s degrees. Because of this, she has to create a type of double of herself to appear as though she does have a degree in order to ensure that those who don’t know her or her work well still respect her for the quality of work she does and do not immediately judge her for her lack of degree in such a high position.

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