Posted by Sharon Cece on May 8th, 2009
There are many things you can lose. You can lose your keys, you can lose an argument, you can lose weight and at times you can lose your way. One thing you can never lose is your education. From the moment you flip that little tassel to the other side, you own it forever. It’s called a lifetime achievement.
There are few things in my life that I aspired to that were and are truly important to me, few things that I sought after with clear conviction. Finding a lifetime marriage partner was one of those few–having children was also (even though I didn’t realize how much until it actually happened). My faith is something I‘m continually and deeply seeking, time spent with family and friends are constant, essential goals; simple things I crave, such as one perfectly decorated truffle in a candy store window. Never material goods, not even a career necessarily.
But my degree–now, getting my degree was exceptionally important to me, one of those very few things I sought after for so many years, even after I thought I had given up. Maybe because I realized it was one of the few things that couldn’t be taken away; it presented itself as a solid testimony to my unusually steadfast commitment to a singular goal.
I honestly thought that once I was finally finished–when that very last course was at long last complete and that last click was clicked, when I could jump up and yell my FSU Seminole yell “YAYYYYYYYY I’m DONE FINISHED YAYAYAYAYA!”, that yell would be the big moment and, other than the pomp of commencement, it all would nicely fade away into a soft, happy memory. But the glow of achievement has not diminished after three years and I wonder if it will ever. It may be that because my journey to college graduation was so long (21 years) and so impatiently awaited that it may take longer to shelve it under “just another goal met“. But I don’t think so. When I think about, wow, the menagerie of courses (four different universities contributed), how grueling it was working two, sometimes three jobs; how I attended first as a young student, and then as a young married student, then an older student with children, about all the transitions I endured and how I brought those transitions into my essays and my exchanges, and how I evolved on so many levels, I honestly don’t believe the joy, the sweet sensation of reaching the mountain’s steep and lofty pinnacle, will ever recede.
The fact that I finished my degree online only added to it’s allure, gave my degree more color and depth. My degree, or rather my journey to my degree, metamorphosed so many times throughout the years that the journey took on a life of it’s own, to finish in a way completely different from how I started but no less satisfying. In fact, the online aspect was the final piece in my multifaceted academic puzzle. The online ingredient expanded my university well-roundedness; I can relate, now, both to students on campus and students online. That’s pretty cool.
As anyone who’s read even one of my posts knows, my online degree has given me so much more than an education, it‘s given me a perpetual feeling. How to describe that feeling… do you know that sweet sensation when you’ve just finished cleaning your house, the whole entire house, and you finally sink into your couch “Ahhhh” and look around at your beautiful sparkling home and simply relish in all the hard work you did? Or, when you’ve just finished a huge project–one that has been challenging and overwhelming, the one you thought you’d never get done–when you put the finishing touches on it and step back to look at it, that feeling? Or when you’ve finished baking a huge, I do mean humongous, Thanksgiving dinner for 25 people and you’ve slaved and worked and sweated (and worried quite a bit), dealt with the many snags and snafus, but when everything’s finally done and on the table you look at this glorious feast and think, wow it’s amazing. I really did it.
Magnify that a hundred-fold, and that’s the feeling you’ll have from getting your degree. Except it doesn’t need to be cleaned over and over, or redone and revised, or reduced from a feast to crumbs you scrape off a dinner plate. That feeling, that achievement, is here to stay. And no matter what you do with your degree, whether you get a more qualified job or higher pay, go on to get another degree, or simply enjoy the sense of accomplishment it brings, you will have added a grand chapter to your life book, the chapter entitled, “Amazing, I Really Did It”.
Posted by Jeff Davis on May 7th, 2009
My online degree has proved as valuable as a traditional degree in every sense of the word to me. It has been an invaluable tool and has opened up many more opportunities in my career field, including ones that would not have been possible without it. In fact, I have found it to be such a rewarding experience and of such great value that it has encouraged me to go back to school online and pursue my graduate degree. I am now halfway through an online graduate degree program and am looking forward to seeing what opportunities and doors will open even more once I am finished.
Earning my degree online was way more rewarding than I ever imagined it would be. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure what to expect as I had only attended a traditional school up to that point in my college experience. But once I became familiar with the online process and the overall familiarity of how things worked in this realm, I was off and running towards graduation.
Overall, I feel more confident about pursuing and applying for future employment opportunities because of my online degrees and educational experiences. I have learned so much during my online courses that I never did during my time on the ground. Attending school online has been a terrific experience and a great reward for me. I believe that you have to take advantage of the opportunities put before you and this could not be truer than with earning an online degree.
Posted by Jen Zeman on May 6th, 2009
My online bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies did not provide me with a career as a paralegal as I had originally anticipated. What I learned are most law firms, especially the larger ones that pay well, look primarily for experience over having a degree. I had no experience in a law firm which worked against me, even as I vividly described the legal experience gained with my online courses. Many firms would offer entry-level clerical positions, but I was at a point in my career where I was not willing to start over again in terms of salary (i.e. it would have been a significant decrease in pay).
In spite of this, I still found earning my degree extremely rewarding. It was one of my major life goals, both personally and professionally. Obtaining the degree after years of hard work and sacrifice was a truly joyous occasion, making me feel I was capable of just about anything I put my mind on. Ultimately the degree paid off as I was able to obtain a well-paying, highly-coveted federal government position that requires individuals to have a bachelor’s degree. The research and analytical skills I learned online at UMUC have proven to be in-demand within my current position and in many other career positions within the government. I am confident that advancement opportunities abound with the education I received.
If you do not end up in the career field you anticipated upon graduation, don’t despair. A variety of opportunities may appear at your feet instead – just keep your mind and eyes open. Obtaining an online degree will never be a wrong decision.
Online college education has opened a whole new world for me. It has helped me to achieve status as a knowledgeable 21st century teacher, and people who I work with look to me for answers about online education and technology integration. Many of the new teachers in middle school education have the tech skills that I have, but they are not yet able to apply their skills as effectively. The experience with 20th century teaching and students combined with my 21st century tech skills have served me well.
Since I am near retirement, my future job prospects are probably different from the normal 22-year-old college graduate. I want to work part time from home, and I think the online training will be helpful. I do know that online teaching jobs at the middle school level are scarce, and the few that are open are highly competitive. It is an emerging market, but I am confident of my readiness for new markets.
It will be highly unlikely that I take a class that isn’t online. I am used to scheduling my course work on my own terms. Online education allows me to work full time, tutor students part-time, and schedule my assignments on my own terms. I do operate from the vantage point of my first degree in 1975 being entirely on-site. At that point in time, computers and the online environment were merely science fiction.
I remember reading a fictionalized story about a man who programmed a computer (which took up a whole room) to write poetry for his wife. The computer ended up falling in love with the man’s wife and obsessively blew its circuits writing poetry. The story ended with the computer giving the man enough poems for a thousand years. Another science fiction story was about a man who discovered how to multiply in his head after years of delegating this tasks to computers. People had forgotten this skill, which I still teach today, after allowing computers to multiply for them.
Although these particular science fiction stories do not completely match the evolution of computers and their online connections, it is interesting to think about how I was educated in 1975 and how I am educated now. My education today would have been a great science fiction story in 1975.
