Berea College junior Ashley Burba of Munfordville, KY, is spotlighted in a September 2007 Kentucky Living article about time management. The single mother of a 3 year old, Ashley balances her studies at Berea, caring for her daughter, and her campus work position as the student office manager of Berea’s Student Financial Aid office. Ashley, who happens to also be an AIKCU Named Scholar, is representative of the many students on Kentucky independent college campuses who shatter conventional perceptions of college students by juggling work, family, and educational responsibilities.

From the article:

A single mother with a 3-year-old daughter. A junior in college majoring in agriculture. The manager of an office with four other employees. These three busy people are actually all the same person and her name is Ashley Burba. And when I visit her apartment on the Berea College campus, she has even baked toffee cookies, which are cooling on the kitchen counter.

Her secret? “I write everything down,” Ashley says. “I keep a calendar book.” In her weekly schedule, she marks out blocks of time for all her commitments: her classes, her 23 hours as manager of the Student Financial Aid Office, her volunteer work at the college’s Ecovillage. After she picks up Isabella at day care, the two have playtime and dinner while Ashley does housework. She studies when her daughter is in bed.

It’s a daunting schedule, but Ashley handles it with grace and energy by staying focused on what’s most important to her: her daughter and her education. This semester her special goal is to get all A’s and B’s in her classes.

Ashley and other successful students across Kentucky have discovered the key to using time well: setting priorities and then building the day around them. We all have our “have-to’s” (study, work, chores) and our “want-to’s” (sports, TV time, socializing). An effective schedule allows enough time to cover all the have-to’s, in order to make room for plenty of want-to’s.

Continue reading the full article.