Jen Schwartz
Where does someone who runs an alternative education program go when they want to complete their graduate degree?
For Jen, a 36-year-old mother of four, the answer is "a distance learning program."
Jen and her husband run the Sego Lily School, a small alternative K-12 private school in Salt Lake City, Utah. Besides running the school, Jen has also written one book about the school, and is working on another.
She felt a master's degree would not only lend credibility to the school, but also to her career as an author.
For that reason, Jen enrolled in the Masters in Education with a concentration in Leadership of Educational Organizations at American Intercontinental University.
"I needed to know that the design of the program was flexible enough to accommodate my interest in alternative education," said Jen.
"The type of school I founded is extremely alternative, and I didn't want to be stuck in a master's program tailored only to the traditional educator. Ultimately, I chose AIU because I saw it was flexible enough."
Jen is anything but a traditional educator. She said she began tutoring children with learning disabilities when she was only 9-years-old.
At the Sego Lily School, "children ages 4-18 are free to pursue their individual interests while participating as responsible members of our democratic school community," according to the school's Web site. Perhaps it should be no surprise that Jen chose an alternative route to her graduate degree as well.
Jen graduated from a traditional brick-and-mortar school, the University of Texas in Austin, in 1993.
She then took a 13 year break from her education before deciding to get her master's degree from AIU. However, Jen discovered that returning to school after an extended period of time presented its own set of challenges. She started the program with a three month old child at home.
"As my husband says, I can type one handed while nursing or holding a sleeping baby faster than most people can type with two!" said Jen.
On top of raising four children, Jen was also moving into a new home, preparing another one for the housing market, and planning her own wedding.
Jen said it was the flexibility of an online program which allowed her to take care of the demands of running a home and a school, although she said the rigors of a 10-month graduate program sometimes gave her second thoughts. "There were times I said, "Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into?" laughed Jen.
Jen said what helped her cope with the heavy work load was scheduling plenty of time to finish her assignments.
"Make sure you give yourself enough time," she advises distance learning students. "If you think something will take one hour, schedule two hours to work on your assignment."
Jen recalled an instance when she was traveling and had an assignment due. She thought she would just stop at an Internet café and submit her assignment, only to discover the Internet access was down.
The program at AIU also required a certain amount of group work with other students in her class. Jen said typically, there were 20 to 30 students in each class.
Textbooks were delivered by mail directly from AIU, and courses also featured pre-recorded video lectures, slide shows of course materials, Web-based reading and online student chats. Two writing assignments were due nearly every week for the duration of the 10 month program.
Despite the fact the program was delivered online, Jen said there was plenty of opportunity to interact with others.
"I assumed it would be very isolating, but I actually spoke directly with professors and my fellow students quite a lot. I didn't realize there was going to be so much interaction. It wasn't isolating at all."
Jen said another misconception is that a degree from a distance learning institution isn't as good as that from a traditional institution.
"In my searching, I didn't find any "fly by night" schools out to make money. They were all accredited programs, resulting in degrees that are just as credible as those from any brick-and-mortar university."
Thirteen years after graduating from a traditional university, Jen earned her graduate degree while caring for four small children, moving to a new home, running her own school and planning her wedding, and she graduated with a 4.0 grade point average in her program.
What's the secret to her success as a distance learning student?
"There isn't anything special about me that made it possible for me to do this," said Jen. "I'm not Super Mom and I don't have super powers. However, it is possible to be a great mother, practice attachment parenting, and have a wonderful relationship and work life while going to school online, but only if you manage everything with integrity."
"I learned that I can do anything I put my mind to!
