Guide to Online Education > Online Education In-Depth > Meet Real Online Students > Jen, M.S. in Education - Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
"I always knew that I wanted to further my education," she says. "It was time." She admits it would have been easier to attend school prior to having children. She briefly considered pursuing her degree as a young teacher, and again as a newlywed living in Southern California.
Name: Jennifer
Age: 36
Marital Status: Married
Kids: Three boys aged 9, 6, and 4
Fact: Both Jen and her husband, Scott, took online courses at the same time to earn their degrees.
School: Walden University
Target: M.S. in Education
"I would've had access to a big name university. UCLA had a prestigious School of Education. But I couldn't be a full-time student. It was discouraging."
She also considered some of the other programs in the area then, but found them lacking in innovation. "And," she adds, "I wasn't looking forward to sitting in L.A. traffic after work."
"By the time we returned to Northern California, any thoughts of returning to school were put on hold as we added to our family. As we were having our last child, we started on the path." Pursuing their degrees did call for creativity, stamina, and personal sacrifice. But they made it work.
Her laptop computer was "indispensable." It gave her the freedom to weave coursework into the fabric of their daily lives. She took it to soccer practice, tee ball practice and to capoeira, a Brazilian martial art the family studies.
In between fastening shin guards, lacing cleats, and opening juice boxes, she typed up homework. "I even took my laptop on the family vacation to Hawaii," she remembers fondly. "The place had wireless access. I packed my videos and was able to do my postings as well as submit my homework."
She likens the 18-month degree program to new motherhood. "I studied after hours. It was almost two years of really late nights. "I didn't go to sleep anytime before midnight," she says. "You make it through bleary-eyed, just like with a newborn baby. And a year and a half later, the baby is sleeping through the night."
And just as with parenthood, she has found the experience of getting her degree to be rewarding. "I received affirmation when I would try things that I learned [from the coursework] in the classroom with positive results," she says with pride.
Online Degree Programs: Find an accredited online degree program that's right for you
Online Schools: Explore colleges and universities who offer online degrees
Distance Learning Discussion Forums: Ask others for opinions of online schools and online education
Copyright eLearners.com 1999 - 2008
