When Martha “Jo” Guillory Schexneider, 66, was faced with high hurdles at a young age, she simply jumped higher.

The obstacles started young when her parents divorced when she was three years old. Martha, her mom and her grandmother moved to Lake Charles from Abilene, Texas.

“It was not a great childhood but not terrible. I mostly remember being alone. My mother was not very interested in me. I really did not have a lot of guidance during my younger years. During the ‘60s there were not a lot of divorced families or assistance programs like today. It was a different time.”

She dropped out of school as a teenager. Her decision to leave grade school was a combination of a lack of interest in education, financial strife, family woes and the “hippie generation.”

“I no longer had my grandmother, we moved to the middle of Lake Charles and I just did not have much. I was not interested in school. I felt like an outcast and did not fit in with everyone doing school stuff. I was married and that was weird. So, I quit.”

She got married at 14 to create a stable home life, but she now considers that “far too young.” The week before she turned 16, she had her first child and two years later, when she found herself as an 18-year-old mother, wife and high school dropout with little income she had one job lead: Church’s Fried Chicken. The workplace was toxic, and after coming down with strep throat and getting into a disagreement with her manager, she quit.

After this she knew she needed an education to get a better job. The instinct to self-improve is something that Schexneider has always felt.

“I think I just have a drive that things can always be better. I refuse to be told I cannot do something. I will evaluate the different paths and choose the one that will take me where I want to go.”

She passed her GED in one sitting and enrolled at Sowela with just $66 dollars from her mom to buy the books she needed. Inspired by her friends working in data entry, her diploma of choice was data processing so that she could work on “one of those new computers.” While she had no idea what she was getting herself into, she fell in love with computer programming.

She graduated in 1980, and after an eight-year stint of moving up the ladder at Dimmick Auto Supply, Schexneider returned to Sowela to teach Introduction to Data Processing. At this point in her life, she was divorced from her first husband and remarried to her “true love.”

“With a little bit of thought and a lot of nudging I decided to make the leap to teach full time. When I was a child, I had wanted to be a school teacher, so this was almost a dream come true.”

She was a classroom teacher and faculty advisor for 12 years. In 2000, as the institution’s curriculum and culture evolved alongside technological advancements, Schexneider headed the newly developed Department of Information Technology, where she took on the challenge of managing the quick changes in the computer industry.

When a new chancellor took over, new levels of leadership were created and her role shifted to chief information and resources technology officer. While still overseeing information technology, she and her team created the Center for Instructional Technology – a space to both train new faculty and provide resources to students.

Simultaneously, from 1989 to 2009, she attended school every semester and earned five more degrees: A.S. in computer information systems from McNeese State University, occupational education from Sowela, B.S. in business information systems from University of Phoenix, M. Ed. in educational technology from Northwestern State University and a Ed.D. in educational technology from Lamar University.

The last position that Schexneider worked before retirement was executive director of information technology. She made the decision to retire to care for her son James, who was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in 2019. He passed in 2021.

“The world lost a good man that day, a father, husband, son, brother, uncle. I grieve every day for my son, but I move on.”

She didn’t stay away long, as she came back as Property Manager one year ago.

“I totally enjoyed my career at Sowela, and it has been a big part of most of my life. So much so that after sitting out for a year as required by our retirement system… I just was bored in retirement, and I still have a lot to give the school.”

Through it all, Schexneider has learned four ways to work through tribulations. The first of these is to ask for help when needed.

“Ask friends, ask religious leaders, ask teachers, just ask. Don’t confine your thought process to this is just the way it is. If someone would have stepped in with me when I was young, I may have been on this path a lot earlier.”

She also believes it is important to not be a victim.

“If someone is treating you badly, or something happens that is detrimental, change the circumstances. It may not be easy to push on when your world has collapsed, but if you push through it, things will be better.”

She also said to “take initiative to take care of yourself” and to create a healthy support system.