On Mondays and Tuesdays, Griffith University students might see a sweet preschool kid doing her colouring on campus. Those are the days Mormor’s mum, Marvel Nartey, 40, has set aside for a mix of caregiving and MBA study.
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Marvel Nartey plans to complete her MBA at Griffith University in 2027.
“When my older children are at school, I take Mormor to gymnastics and then we go to university so I can study,” Nartey says. “She loves it. We have lunch together and everyone always tells her she is so cute, so she likes the compliments. I try to make it enjoyable.”
Nartey, a registered nurse and mum of four who plans to complete her MBA in mid-2027, started her studies to give her the business grounding she needed to launch a children’s clothing line.
“I love to advance myself and I love to study,” Nartey says. “For 15 years … I’ve been focused on work and raising our children while my husband pursued further education. Now it’s my turn to invest in my own education and career development.”
For Cara Westerman, who completed her Griffith University MBA in 2025, knowing that she was investing in her own growth at a time when she was in the “trenches” with her kids, Finley, now eight, and Florence, five, was incredibly motivating.
“I started my MBA when Florence was six months old because I wanted to keep my brain active on mat leave,” says Westerman, a principal at the project consulting firm TSA Riley.
“I was progressing myself at a period of time when I felt like I was giving so much to my kids and my family; to continue to build myself was important.”
Caring for kids while studying and working is no small undertaking, but Westerman and Nartey say that with clear family communication and a lot of planning, parents can absolutely earn a coveted master of business administration.
Study smart by setting reliable routines
Reliable routines proved to be Westerman’s ultimate hack when it came to fitting in her studies around work, family and self-care.
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Cara Westerman started an MBA at Griffith University to keep her brain active on mat leave.
Her days started with exercise at 4.30am or 5am before drop-offs, a workday and the dinner-bath-bed routine with the kids. “From 7.30 to 9pm I’d study and also during their naps on the weekend,” she says.
“But you have to be agile with your time because kids might wake up at night or plans change. You can’t find more time, so you have to do what you can within the time you have. It’s like: I’ve got half an hour now; here’s how I’m going to prioritise my time.”
Using her own workplace as a case study for assignments allowed Westerman to make the best use of her time. It also gave her deeper insights into the real-world challenges she was facing, and meant she could practically apply what she was learning. “It was to actually get an outcome,” she says. “It wasn’t just to get a grade or deliver an assignment.”
The beauty of the Griffith University MBA is that studies are offered 100% online and students can reduce their study load or defer a trimester when life takes over. In Westerman’s case, she took a trimester off when she had family visiting and a lot on her plate. “I couldn’t have done an in-person course,” she says.
In Nartey’s case, with four kids aged under 11 and both she and her husband working full-time, fitting in her MBA requires impeccable household organisation. Her days start early, making lunchboxes before heading to the gym, while her husband feeds the kids and ensures they’re ready for school.
“I do school drop-offs then return home for breakfast and study time before school pick-up,” Nartey says.
Nartey says the fact that she enjoys her MBA subjects so much motivates her to manage the juggle. “When you see something as a task, it gets overwhelming,” she says. “I don’t see study as a task; I see it as a calling. I enjoy it.”
A sense of achievement with a ripple effect
Juggling an MBA with parenting and work is no mean feat, but Westerman says the knowledge gained and the sense of achievement that comes from studying an MBA is worth the extra “mental load”.
The course gave her confidence, she says. While Cara is transparent about her imposter syndrome, the MBA helped her realise she was actually doing a lot of things correctly.
It also boosted her professional standing. “It adds depth and credibility as a leader,” she says. “People know that I’ve actually been through a process of learning, as well as on-the-job learning.”
And the feeling of graduating from your MBA, knowing you kept a household humming and a career progressing? Unforgettable. “When I picked Florence up at my graduation four years after I started when she was a baby, I thought, ‘This is the size of my MBA!’” Westerman says. “For her whole life she’s known me studying at uni, and I was really proud that she’s seen me giving back to myself.”
