SCC graduate doubles as mother of 14

It is difficult for many adults, who have already held positions in the work force for years, to return to college and obtain a degree.

But 51-year-old Beth Bowen of Snohomish, a mother of 14, knew that if she wanted to find a secure job to help support her large family, she needed more education.

“I was trying to go to school to make things better for the future,” Bowen said.

With 14 children, times can be difficult. And the past few years in particular for the Bowen family have been hard. But Bowen was still able to graduate earlier this month from Shoreline Community College with a degree in health information technology and a GPA of nearly 3.9. She will complete certification as a medical coding specialist and medical reimbursement specialist this summer quarter. SCC has one of only three two-year accredited programs of this sort in the state.

Bowen was one of eight children growing up in Hancock, Mich., and after attending college for two years, she married Michael Bowen. They lived in parts of Minnesota and Colorado before deciding to move to Snohomish in 1988.

Bowen grew up not believing in birth control, so she anticipated she would have a large family, perhaps a dozen or so, she said.

Having so many children may surprise some people, but Bowen said she would not have had it any other way. Many parents have a difficult time keeping their children’s schedules straight. Luckily, Bowen receives a lot of assistance with the younger kids and around the house from the older kids and their spouses, as well as her husband.

“Things didn’t get done to mom’s standards, but they got done,” Michael Bowen said.

Her children, Angela, 32, Jason, 31, Kevin, 29, Gloriana, 28, Jonathan, 25, Maria, 24, Melanie, 23, Genevieve, 20, Braden, 19, Kathryn, 17, Garrett, 16, Emily, 14, Victoria, 12, and Jordan, 10, are each special to her in their own way, she said. Several of her children are married, and she has four grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. Cari, 18, a friend of the family, moved in a couple of months ago as well.

Bowen said she enjoys having the family around her, and she hopes that her family will always want to spend time at her home. She proudly said her children have been very successful, and she knows that her two years SCC have made an impression on them.

“I’m doing this to better our lives so that they can go to school and have a better life than we have,” she said.

Bowen was a stay-at-home mom until 1990, when she wandered into Evergreen Hospital Medical Center, hoping to find employment. Although she had no experience or training, she was hired as a filer and soon learned almost all of the office tasks.

“[My boss] hired me, because she said, ‘With all those kids, I figured you had to get out of the house,’” Bowen said.

That first break sparked her interest in the medical field, and she said she would like to return to a hospital to work when she completes her schooling.

Bowen was mostly on call and working 40-hour weeks until the hospital started laying off on-call employees. She also worked at Overlake Hospital Medical Center for a while, but it also began lay offs. She managed to land a job as a mail carrier for a little less than a year, but injury forced her to leave that job.

Faced with unemployment and needing money to pay the bills and raise her family, Bowen wandered into the Snohomish County Employment Security Department’s WorkSource office looking to get help with her resume. What she stumbled upon was more than resume advice; she learned about WorkSource’s ability to help find funding to educate the unemployed.

After interviews and testing, she was accepted into the program and began taking classes in the fall of 2002.

“Without the funding, grants and loans, there’s no way I could’ve gotten this education,” Bowen said.

But the Bowen family was not in the clear just yet. Michael was laid off, and they had to declare chapter 13 bankruptcy at the same time as Bowen enrolled in college. The family had worked very hard to maintain their finances, Bowen said, and they were only slightly behind mortgage and car payments, but the money just was not there. Michael found work intermittently while she attended school, and he has worked steadily since this January, but Bowen said it will be much easier when she can find a job.

Donna Wilde, the director of health care information programs at SCC, said Bowen was always smiling and a very dependable student.

“She was always very pleasant and professional in her dealings with faculty and students,” Wilde said.

Bowen had the ability, Wilde said, to draw connections across subject matter, which will help her succeed.

Wilde said Bowen was very successful in her clinical practice portion of the degree, and she added that most graduates find jobs within two months of graduation.