So I'm seriously considering attending an overtly heterosexist university.
Let me backtrack.
For around eight years I've been considering a career in school psychology. It sounds like a really good job for me, as I mentioned in my last post.
BUT, I didn't want to go through a three-year graduate degree program. I wanted to be done with school, at least for the time being, with a job that would allow me to live on my own, as opposed to with my parents. So after I graduated with my psych degree, I applied for jobs which I qualified for, such as jobs in mental health and social work. Now, here I am, a social worker for CPS, case managing foster youth. I have a stable job where I can even be out as queer, where I could envision getting support while transitioning. I'm living away from my parents, and even own a house. Everything is just dandy. Except for the fact that I don't like my job very much, and can't imagine doing this for the next thirty years. I could apply for other social work jobs, such as working with the elderly, but really I don't think social work is the right career for me. I've given it over a year now, and I still yearn for the days when I worked in the schools, when I could get excited about my work, when I didn't feel so incredibly stressed out all the time.
So I'm considering going back to school to get my school psychology degree. Locally, I could go to CSU Fresno, National University, or Fresno Pacific University. I'd been leaning toward CSU Fresno. Public university tuition rates, good program, student health center on campus. Then my mother, who attended Fresno Pacific for her special ed credential, spoke with a former professor of hers, who told her about Fresno Pacific's new program. In the same amount of time it takes to get a school psychology degree, you can become a credentialed school psychologist AND school counselor, as well as earn your applied behavioral analysis certificate. This would greatly open up the number of jobs I would qualify for, improve my marketability, and allow me to decide to change to being a school counselor if I decide school psychology isn't right for me. An added bonus: according to my mother, according to Dr. Kapriva, for the first year I would be able to go to school only in the evenings, keeping my day job, which would offset the private school tuition a lot.
The catch: Fresno Pacific's code of ethics specifically is against homosexuality. To my knowledge, it doesn't mention gender reassignment, but I'm betting the university isn't so hot on that either. Just a wild guess. So I'd have to put off the whole gender transition thing at least five years: it'll be one year before I can get into the program, it's a three-year program, and I would have to work for at least a year in my new position before I could safely transition on the job. And I'd have to keep my mouth shut about my stance on gay rights, let alone my own sexual orientation.
A technical glitches as well: I'm missing two prerequisites, Intercultural Communication and Educational Statistics and Research Design. My mother says Fresno Pacific is good about allowing people to take prerequisites concurrently with the program courses, but I'd have to talk to an adviser to know for sure.
Nothing is set in stone at this point, but I am giving this serious consideration.
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