Advocating for community while enrolled in an online elementary education program
I never expected to find myself in a Senate office building, talking about childcare with the people who write the laws that shape it. But that’s where I was this spring, representing Oregon families at the Strolling Thunder event held by Zero to Three on Capitol Hill. I was still an Oregon State University Ecampus student with a discussion post due after meeting former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
I live in Deer Island, a small, unincorporated community in Columbia County, Oregon. There, if you’re a parent trying to find childcare, you quickly learn the term “childcare desert” isn’t an abstraction. It’s your Tuesday.
That’s the reality I carry into every room I walk into, whether it’s substitute teaching in the St. Helens School District, serving as the parent and family board representative for the Northwest Regional Education Service District’s Northwest Early Learning Hub, advocating through the United Way of Columbia County and working toward my bachelor’s degree in elementary education online through Oregon State University.
None of it happens in isolation. It all feeds each other.
How I got to Washington, D.C.
Strolling Thunder brings parents from across the country to Washington to talk directly with lawmakers about policies that affect young children and families. We talked about childcare access, paid leave and early learning investment. Our family was selected as Oregon’s parent family representative for 2026.
While there, I met with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, sat down with both of Oregon’s U.S. senators’ staffers and spoke with Pelosi at the rally. I didn’t walk in with a title or a policy degree. I walked in as a mom from Deer Island with a story about what it looks like to raise a family where childcare is scarce.
Carrying my community with me
What struck me most, sitting across from members of Congress, was how much they wanted specifics, not statistics.
I told them about Columbia County, about parents who take jobs based on which employer’s schedule lines up with the one open childcare slot in town and about substitute teachers, like me, piecing together a living while building something more permanent.
That’s the thread running through everything I do. I’m not there because I have all the answers. I’m there because I’ve lived and cried through the questions.
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How an online elementary education program fits in
The classroom and the policy table are the same fight. Every Oregon State course I take online sharpens the same instinct and core belief that kids do better when the adults around them build systems that actually see them.
Being an online, self-directed student has also taught me how to hold a lot at once — writing papers from hotel rooms between meetings and after my toddler goes to sleep. The flexibility of OSU Ecampus and the support of my academic advisor is the reason I could say yes to Strolling Thunder without putting my degree on hold again.
What I hope people take from this
If there’s one thing I’d want another online student, or another rural parent, to take from this trip, it’s that you don’t need to feel fully qualified to advocate for your community.
I didn’t have a policy background. I had a substitute teaching schedule, a stack of night-class readings and a story I really wanted to tell. That was enough to get a seat at the table.
Finding success as an online student doesn’t look like one thing. Sometimes it’s a high grade. Sometimes it’s flying across the country to speak up for the families back home, then logging into class the next morning like nothing happened at all.
And that’s the story I wanted Ecampus students to hear. It’s messy and hard, but also so incredibly rewarding.
Learn more about how you can pursue your elementary education bachelor’s degree online with Oregon State University and get started on your journey today.
