No One Can Take This Away From Me

After a layoff left Yasmin Brumfield searching for a way forward, one paycheck made something clear: she needed a change. With children depending on her and a schedule already stretched thin, WGU gave her a way to earn her degree without putting the rest of her life on hold.

When Yasmin Brumfield opened her first paycheck as a school bus driver, she knew something had to change.

She had already been laid off from a work-from-home position and struggled to find opportunities that could provide the stability she wanted for her family. Driving a school bus offered work, but when her first two-week paycheck came in at less than $700, Yasmin looked at the expenses of raising her children and reached a breaking point.

“I can’t make it off of that,” she remembered thinking. “Enough is enough. It’s time to go back to school.”

For Yasmin, however, returning to school could not mean stepping away from work or family. She needed an education that could fit into a life that was already full.

That is what she found at WGU.

“I can work when I need to work and still be able to take care of my family,” she said.

WGU’s online, competency-based model gave Yasmin the freedom to create a schedule around her responsibilities rather than rearrange those responsibilities around a traditional classroom—but flexibility did not necessarily mean easy.

When the House Was Quiet

Yasmin was balancing work, marriage, children, sports, family responsibilities, and the occasional attempt at self-care.

Her solution was to find hours no one else needed from her.

“When the kids were asleep, I’d be up doing schoolwork from 2:00 in the morning to 5:00,” she said, “and then get right back up at 6:30 to be on the bus to go pick up kids and take them to school.”

Eventually, she found a rhythm. School happened when her life allowed it—even if that meant studying while most of the house slept.

One night put that determination to an even greater test. Her baby had RSV and wanted to be held and comforted. Yasmin also had coursework she needed to finish before the end of the month.

She remembers crying and confronting the choice in front of her: quit or keep going.

“I had to rock a sick baby and study,” she said, “because this is something I need for me and my family.”

Her Program Mentor, Mr. Brody, became another important part of keeping that goal in sight. Yasmin told him what she wanted to accomplish and gave him a straightforward request: push me.

He did. 

When WGU Commencement was coming to New Orleans, he helped Yasmin see it as a finish line worth working toward.

The First Degree, Not the Last

Yasmin is already building what comes next.

She is actively exploring new career opportunities in marketing, business, analytics, and related fields while continuing to grow professionally. At the same time, she is building MarketHER Moves LLC, a business focused on marketing, strategy, and helping other businesses grow.

And her education is continuing, too.

After earning her bachelor’s degree, Yasmin returned to WGU and is now pursuing her Master of Science in Marketing, Marketing Analytics.

That may be one of the clearest signs of how much her journey changed what Yasmin believes is possible.

There was once a time when a job application asking whether she held a bachelor’s degree meant checking “no.”

Not anymore.

“Heck yeah, I have a bachelor’s degree in marketing with WGU,” she said. “It’s exciting.”

Her first degree changed more than a line on her résumé. It broke a generational barrier, gave her children an example they could witness firsthand, and opened the door to new career, business, and educational goals she is now actively pursuing.

And this time, Yasmin already knows she can do it.