Life's a roller coaster for mum of eight studying law

The mother of eight wakes up every day with a plan to juggle between school, sport commitments and mealtimes - while also studying law full-time.

The busy household is made up of her four biological children and four adopted children.

A 19-year-old boy, 16-year-old boy, 12-year-old girl and 9-year-old girl make up her natural children.

She took in her four nephews, one aged 14, two aged 8 and one 9-year-old, to give them a better life in Australia.

When Mrs Lemisio was growing up in Samoa, she never dreamed she would be leading the life she has now.

"Supporting the family over there is hard. If you don't have a job, you eat from a plantation and you eat from the sea where they are fish," she said.

Mrs Lemisio moved to Australia as a 12-year-old in 1994, living and studying in Melbourne.

She moved to Canberra with her four children in 2016 and her adoptive children moved to Australia last year.

"I'm so happy that these kids that I've adopted come here and I see them happy, going to school with lunch, a uniform."

Supporting eight children didn't deter her from taking on another huge challenge - studying a double degree in politics and international relations and law.

"I chose law because my family always said, 'oh why don't you try to be a lawyer' because I solve most of our problems in our home, for our family. I argue and I win," she laughed.

"It's also provided me the current support on which I can stand for the rights of others."

She studied criminology in Melbourne but going back to university in her late 30s alongside students who had come straight from school was daunting.

A typical day starts at 4am, when she wakes up to make lunch for her oldest son, who plays first grade rugby union for Tuggeranong Vikings and is part of the Brumbies Academy.

Then it's time to make lunch for the rest of the children, dropping the high-schoolers at the bus stop and the younger kids at primary school.

On uni days she'll get to campus at 9.30am for lectures and tutorials.

Then it's back home to get food ready for when the children get home from school.

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She gets dinner ready for the whole tribe and drives the boys to rugby training. After the younger children go to bed it's time for her to study until 1am.

"When I'm at home alone I do some studies, but when they come home, it's like a roller coaster going on."

Luckily there's plenty of support available, even in the middle of the night with online platform Studiosity.

"There are support services where I'm going at University of Canberra where you can contact for help if needed.

"So for example, academic study support, financial support, health, any other support they can offer you but you have to ask for it."

Mrs Lemisio is interested in working in corporate, family or criminal law when she's completed the degree by the end of 2024.

"Learning law is like going to another country and learning a new language. I like learning new things and I wanted to learn how our society works," Mrs Lemisio said.

"It is hard but if I can do it anyone can do it."

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