Jacobs excels with graduate degree

Iakowennaiéwas Falen Jacobs has added a lot to her life over the past four years. She’s gained a new job title, a new baby, and somehow along the way, two more academic qualifications, putting a second master’s degree and two graduate certificates to her list of educational achievements.

“It’s been amazing,” said Jacobs, who walked across the stage at McGill University to receive her Master of Arts degree in educational leadership and her graduate certificates in the same field on May 29.

Jacobs has juggled her educational journey with being director of education at the Kahnawake Education Center (KEC), a role she started at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year.

Though it might seem like a lot to handle, Jacobs said it was actually beneficial to be navigating the role at the same time as her degree.

“I’ve learned so, so much, I would be in class one night, and then the next day I could come to work and start applying those skills,” she said. “It’s really helped me to broaden my perspective, it’s helped me to approach situations thinking differently with everything I’ve learned about myself.”

Jacobs, who already holds a master’s degree in educational psychology from McGill, said that she worked on meaningful projects throughout her degree, especially benefiting from the mentorship of professor Carol Marriott, who encouraged her to pursue a self-study project examining her own transition from being KEC’s associate director to director of education.

The resulting project was a thorough examination of her experience in the roles, including a weekly journal where Jacobs analyzed anonymized situations that she had dealt with and applied theories, like Daniel Goleman’s theories of emotional intelligence, to better understand her leadership style.

“I learnt a lot about myself and my tendencies and strengths, as well as areas that I need to improve in, so I identified quite a few things moving forward that I really want to focus on,” Jacobs said. “There were a lot of revelations, it was really eye-opening to me.”

Most of Jacobs’ work was completed at nighttime, after the school day and after the kids were put to bed, but having to work especially hard to find time to study didn’t stop Jacobs from excelling. She graduated from her master’s degree having obtained straight A grades throughout the course, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average throughout.

“Grades aren’t the end all be all, but that was really meaningful to me, knowing I had a lot on my plate going through a role transition with onboarding and mentoring as well as going to school and also raising a young family,” she said. “It was just really scary, returning to school and thinking ‘Can I do it all?’ because I really didn’t want to fail, so I’m so proud of myself that I did it.”

Jacobs said that many mothers are used to putting themselves last, with higher education often seeming impossible for people juggling a family. But that’s something Jacobs said needs to change.

“Sometimes we put ourselves on the back burner, but it’s okay to want to have goals and dreams and attain them while you’re a mom, it’s definitely possible,” she said. “My word of advice would be to find a support system, whether it’s family or not.”

Jacobs thanks her family, including her husband and children, for being that support system for her, but said that she wants those who might not have family support to also feel encouraged in pursuing education.

“There are single parents and women raising children on their own and that might be more intimidating, but I’m offering myself to support people if they have questions, if they want to talk about things, or if they’re worried,” she said. “You shouldn’t hold yourself back because you think ‘I’m too old’ or ‘I have kids’ because it’s never too late. I really encourage people to be lifelong learners.”

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