Tigard’s University of Phoenix helping woman to rise from economy’s ashes

By Leah Weissman

The Times, Feb 5, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jaime Valdez / The Times

MAKING ENDS MEET — Erin Milos started attending the University of Phoenix Oregon Campus in Tigard when she realized she needed more than a minimum wage job to help support her family.

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"We aren’t looking to be millionaires, we are just looking to support our family.”

Those words of Erin Milos echo the goal of many Oregonians these days. With the state’s number of unemployed reaching a record high since 1983, and large corporations laying off workers and small shops shutting down, jobs – any jobs – are in high demand.

Milos, 26, her husband and their two 3- and 4-year-old boys live in Salem. She is a stay-at-home mom while her husband works 70 hours a week as an ambulance attendant and in a Fred Meyer warehouse. Still, his income isn’t enough to keep the family afloat.

“We realized we needed a second income to survive; we were barely treading water,” Milos said.

Rather than look for a job that would most likely be minimum wage, Milos decided to go back to college to finish her degree and increase her chances for a better paying career.

Every Monday she drives an hour from her home in Salem to the University of Phoenix Oregon Campus in Tigard. Her goal is to receive a bachelor’s degree in human services and then move on to a master’s in law.

“Personality-wise I’m a helper,” Milos said. “Even as a lawyer I want to be a helper, as well as make some decent money.”

She had completed three years of school at Oregon State University and Columbia Gorge Community College before dropping out to start a family in 2004. Now she’s going back to support her family.

“I guess that’s how I was raised – not to settle for minimum wage and drive my car till it breaks down and not be able to afford food,” Milos said. “I have the motivation and I’m gonna get that job. It might be with my bachelor’s degree, maybe with a master’s degree, but I’m going to get the best job I can.”

Because she doesn’t have the money to pay for courses, Milos is going deeper into debt with student loans. But that doesn’t seem to bother her.

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