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Online Learner Profiles: Jennifer D.R.

Profiles of Real Online Learners

Guide to Online Education > Online Education In-Depth > Meet Real Online Students > Jennifer D.R., Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences

In pursuing her B.A. at Thomas Edison State College, it may seem as if Jennifer DeRosa, 37, is working backwards.

After all, she's been teaching in a traditional college setting for fifteen years; and in fact, it was only after making plans to go after a Masters in Education at Penn State that she began to think about how to get her bachelor's in place first.

"I looked at the bachelors only as a means to earning my masters," she says, noting how much an MEd would mean to her future in teaching.

"Once I decided where I wanted to end up, I started building a plan on how to get there."

Shortly after graduating from The Culinary Institute of America in the early 90s, Jennifer was hired to help initiate an Associates degree program in the culinary arts at a local community college.

The job required she obtain a teaching credential, which she did at the University of Iowa, and she has been teaching in the program ever since.

And it's not just in the classroom that Jennifer is a teacher, but at home too: she homeschools her four sons, so her hours at home are especially precious.

"Through raising 4 kids and being a wife, I've always given them 100% …I always had time for breastfeeding, and we never used daycare or a baby sitter," she continues. "I point that out because I think that as an adult, my 'time' for earning my degree was back when I was 18. I can't pretend that I'm a 20-something student."

As a mother, Jennifer feels, the degree is "extra," while the health and welfare of her children remain her and her husband's primary responsibilities.

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