A New Beginning and a Journey to Remember
Everything happens for a reason! That is what my mom always told me, and I believe it. After over 19 years of employment with Bank of America (previously LaSalle, Standard Federal and Michigan National Bank) our call center was closed due to the merger of LaSalle Bank into Bank of America. I was well into my career and absolutely loved every aspect of my job. I had the best of all worlds, my responsibilities included: training development, design and facilitation, internal communications, project management, performance development of employees, monitoring and coaching and employee engagement activities. Once the call center closed, I was forced to re-evaluate my life and my career so I decided to go back to school and earn my Master’s Degree in Educational Technology at MSU as well as pursue a new career in Real Estate. My goal was to pursue a new career in Training and Development in a corporate environment. I knew that I needed to get up to speed with all the latest technologies in order to pursue my dream so, I chose the Master in Arts of Educational Technology program to help me get there.
The thought of returning to school to pursue my Master Degree was a bit scary after being out of college for 10 years. I had never taken an online course before and the thought of an online program concerned me a bit. I remember thinking, “What can I really learn from an online program?” There was a bit of doubt in the beginning but that quickly changed. To the contrary, it has been a great experience to say the least. The online courses have been every engaging, collaborative and participatory. They are flexible and utilizing the Angel chat features, Discussion Boards, Breeze and Skype makes it feel like you are actually there.
I truly didn’t realize it at the time when I wrote my goal statement for the Admission Masters in Educational Technology program on March 26, 2009 that my life was about to take on a new beginning. The journey that I embarked upon at the beginning of 2009 has been more than I could imagine. This program has guided me through very exciting new technologies and educational methods, strategies and theories.
This program has certainly had its challenges along the way, especially from a time commitment standpoint. However, being that the program was online, it has been a saving grace as I have been able to work on assignments anytime and from anywhere. This has been a vital aspect to my success since my time is limited with working two jobs and commitment to family. Currently, I hold a 3.973 grade point average in the program and am very proud of that. This really has been a great experience learning new technologies and theories for learning. I have begun to utilize these technologies that I have learned in my everyday life. I have incorporated many aspects into my career as a realtor in increase presence and increase my customer base. I am very excited about my future career possibilities with earning this degree.
The thought of returning to school to pursue my Master Degree was a bit scary after being out of college for 10 years. I had never taken an online course before and the thought of an online program concerned me a bit. I remember thinking, “What can I really learn from an online program?” There was a bit of doubt in the beginning but that quickly changed. To the contrary, it has been a great experience to say the least. The online courses have been every engaging, collaborative and participatory. They are flexible and utilizing the Angel chat features, Discussion Boards, Breeze and Skype makes it feel like you are actually there.
I truly didn’t realize it at the time when I wrote my goal statement for the Admission Masters in Educational Technology program on March 26, 2009 that my life was about to take on a new beginning. The journey that I embarked upon at the beginning of 2009 has been more than I could imagine. This program has guided me through very exciting new technologies and educational methods, strategies and theories.
This program has certainly had its challenges along the way, especially from a time commitment standpoint. However, being that the program was online, it has been a saving grace as I have been able to work on assignments anytime and from anywhere. This has been a vital aspect to my success since my time is limited with working two jobs and commitment to family. Currently, I hold a 3.973 grade point average in the program and am very proud of that. This really has been a great experience learning new technologies and theories for learning. I have begun to utilize these technologies that I have learned in my everyday life. I have incorporated many aspects into my career as a realtor in increase presence and increase my customer base. I am very excited about my future career possibilities with earning this degree.