Chioma Maryann Igwenagu
BIO
PhD Candidate studying Soil Biology and Biochemistry (Australia). Mom-of-three.
Twitter: @chioma_igwenagu
Instagram: @chiomaann22
Chioma Maryann Igwenagu
“Separating from my children was the most challenging part of my PhD candidature but also my strongest motivation.”
As an international student and a mum, balancing family and graduate studies require great support from families and friends. I have experienced and understood how lack of support systems can affect students (especially international) studying far away from home.
In 2018, I was offered a PhD candidature position at Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University Australia.
After booking my flight, with two weeks left to depart Nigeria for Australia, I discovered I was pregnant with my second child. I had to choose between declining the offer or leaving my family behind. I chose to leave my family behind in Nigeria because of high cost of multifamily health insurance which is difficult for most international students (especially those from third world countries) to afford.
Fortunately, my institute intervened with part of the payment which made it easier to bring my family. Little did I know that this choice would require much more from a young family as mine.
My candidature (Soil science) entails lots of field and laboratory work which means that I would require child care support. We couldn't afford the child care for my two children (2-year-old, and a few weeks old) at the time. Without the work-from-home option, I had to take my children to field and laboratory sites. At the time, I hadn't built enough of a support system/community, which made it even harder to balance my family and career life.
My husband and I employed different strategies at the onset. He had to pick up night shifts instead, but my field sampling and laboratory time started extending into the night at some point which made it difficult for the strategy to work. Another strategy was to invite my mum to Australia to assist us for 6 months. However, her visa was denied!
Eventually, my last option was to take my children back home to my mother and/or mother-in-law or withdraw from my candidature. I chose the former (because I had chosen the latter in my previous PhD candidature, and I didn’t want history to repeat itself).
My intention was to separate from my kids for a maximum of one year so that I can finish field and laboratory work. However, COVID-19 pandemic hit 6 months after, which made it difficult to reunite with my kids for three years!