Amanda Bergen

Meet Amanda Bergen

Name: Amanda Bergen

Age: 26

Marital Status: Married

Advice to Others: "Learn from your classmates; they have a range of personal and work experience that you can learn from."

School: Capella University

Target: Ph.D. in Human Services/Criminal Justice, December 2007

When faced with what looked like a choice between a doctoral degree and the love of her life, Amanda Bergen forged a path that allowed her to have it all.

"My philosophy," she says, "is that there are very few situations in life where there are only two choices. The third and fourth choices are simply options yet to be considered."

This positive, can-do attitude, and the love and support of family and friends, have brought Amanda to where she is today, on the verge of taking her comprehensive exams in Human Services specializing in Criminal Justice.

Amanda has been on the fast-track to academic success her whole life.

"I am a life-long learner," she says. "I've always known that earning a Ph.D. would be one of my educational and career goals."

Her mom, who has been a steady supporter both financially and emotionally, encouraged her to prioritize her education and focus on that before starting a family.

Her path to an online doctoral program in Human Services-Criminal Justice illustrates both her love of learning and her openness to new things.

First, Amanda earned a bachelor's in business administration from Georgia State where she specialized in management. A management class on white collar crime piqued her interest, leading her to earn a master's degree in Criminal Justice from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia.

At Armstrong Atlantic, Amanda needed to take some classes in public health that were only offered online.

The experience, she says, was "completely different. But I loved it!" She ended up taking four online classes while earning her master's degree.

While finishing up her degree, Amanda met her self-proclaimed soulmate and future husband, Christopher. They soon fell in love and got engaged, but those happy developments led to a dilemma.

How could she continue her studies and her budding relationship when there were no suitable doctoral programs within a four-hour drive of Savannah?

Her fiancé was willing to move, but was "quickly climbing the corporate ladder" she says, and moving would not have been ideal for his career.

Not willing to give up one dream for the other, she brainstormed other options, including online learning, with the help of family and her fiancé. Those online classes she took while in her master's program proved to her that online learning was a viable option.

She says that at the time she thought, "I can do this for my Ph.D. It gave me the confidence."

While Amanda was exploring the online learning option, she says her brother asked "Will it say 'online' in parentheses after 'Ph.D.'?"

She recounts, "I told him no, a Ph.D. is a Ph.D. is a Ph.D." That realization sealed the decision for Amanda.

Today Amanda is pursuing her Ph.D. in Human Services/Criminal Justice at Capella University. "I felt very at home with Capella University from the first phone call," she says.

She has not been disappointed in the quality of the education she has received.

"The caliber of my fellow learners at Capella cannot be exceeded and went beyond my expectations," Amanda says. "I have learned at least as much from them as I have from the coursework itself."

She believes that online learning offers a distinct advantage in that as a student "you are collaborating with the best minds in the nation and not just your state or region."

The courses at Capella are as demanding as they are rewarding. Online classes are writing-intensive, with usually a weekly deadline for written homework.

Amanda warns, "You must be a prolific writer to do well at online learning. I love writing and have had no difficulty with the coursework; however, my fellow learners who struggle with writing have had a more difficult time." She recommends that prospective students check that their school has a writing center as Capella does.

In addition to the challenging online classes, Amanda's degree requires participation in three residential colloquia during her coursework. These colloquia are held in different cities throughout the country and provide an opportunity to go to seminar-like classes in person for one week. For Amanda, it was a chance to get to know the other students in her research class.

"We opted to go to a colloquium together and get that face-to-face contact." She has developed close friendships with some of her fellow students though they live in other states.

As fun as that aspect of school has been, Amanda readily admits that online learning has entailed a commitment and drive that might not be paramount in a traditional program.

"There are no acceptable excuses for not getting your work done," she asserts. "You can go to school any time of day or night, whether or not you are sick, or if you are on vacation."

For Amanda, this meant that on her honeymoon in Las Vegas, she was squeezing classwork in between casinos and shows. It also meant having to take a medical leave for one quarter when she cut her cornea so badly she could not drive or even cry.

But in the end, Amanda would say it was all worth it.

She has just completed her base classes for the Ph.D. and is about to take her comprehensive exams. In the spring she begins writing her dissertation, the final phase of her degree. In addition, she is designing a new online class in human behavior at Savannah State University that she says will provide "an enriched learning experience."

Her field of Human Services is all about "people helping other people," she says. In keeping with that spirit, she sees her class as more than just a class, but as "educating a community."