Online Student: Andrew, 37, Columbia Southern University : Project Working Mom
Andrew's Background
A married father of two, Andrew works as the Manager of Environment and Safety for a publicly traded upstream oil and gas company in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree through the traditional method of grinding through day classes and labs, cramming for exams, and working all kinds of jobs to pay for books and tuition.
After graduating, he took a number of classes through Athabasca University intending to get a second Bachelor’s degree, but gave up. A few years later, however, with employer support he returned to school to do an MBA through night classes.
When an MBA Isn’t Enough
Many people would be proud to have an MBA as the capstone of their academic career, but as a self-admitted "learning addict", Andrew decided to go back to school for a second Master’s degree. "I have always enjoyed learning," he explains, "but got trapped in the ‘professional development’ process – all kinds of one and two day courses long on rhetoric and short on technical content."
He added that having completed his MBA not only provided significant career and personal value but also rekindled his interest in structured education: "After a few years breather, and the expansion of my role to include safety management in addition to environmental management, I looked for continuing education opportunities, and found an online Master of Science in Occupational Safety."
Andrew was drawn to distance learning for several reasons. For starters, none of the programs available at universities in his area met his needs. As importantly, however, he had done night classes when doing his MBA and knew from hard experience what a toll it takes on one’s family life.
Online programs with a flexible start date and learning schedule really appealed to him, based on his experience with Athabasca University and what he had seen of the online programs a few of his co-workers were taking. At the same time, he was specifically interested in a non-cohort based program to maximize the flexibility of the learning process.
Andrew’s new field of study was carefully considered. He wanted to expand his skill set in an area to which he had been promoted as a manager. Already having a Bachelor’s and MBA degrees, he saw no point to earning a diploma or certificate, but decided that another Master's level degree made sense. Importantly, it also ensured that his employer would pick up the tab.
Andrew’s search for the right school was swift, and he concluded quickly that Columbia Southern University would be ideal. "Unlike, say an MBA or Bachelor's of Commerce or Fire Science or Criminal Justice, there are not a whole lot of choices for Safety Management or Safety Engineering," he explains.
"I wasn't forced to choose from a huge buffet. As well, my employer has a United States-based division, and the HR reps there essentially said any regional or national accreditation works. That also made my choice easier."
Maintaining Balance
Like many non-traditional students, Andrew has challenges balancing work, family, and school. "Essentially this is always a struggle for me," he says, "as I would almost always rather be on the water, in the mountains, running, working out, etc. Or sitting on a patio somewhere with a coffee and newspaper (morning) or beer. As I was unfortunate enough not to be born as royalty or into a rich family, this currently isn't in the cards for me."
He explains that he has worked out a schedule with his wife that includes time with the kids, and combining activities whenever possible. For example, he puts exercise together with spending time with his family by putting one of the kids in a running stroller, running down to the river, playing for 20 to 30 minutes, then running back home, thereby getting in ten kilometers of running, some swimming, and good quality time with his son.
Andrew has not only made changes to his daily schedule, but his annual one as well. Instead of taking long vacations, he take "micro-vacations", tacking a day or two onto a long weekend, which allows him to turn four weeks of vacation time into about fifteen shorter blocks of time away from work.
He describes it as "sort of a pressure release mechanism. Some of those are actually a four day session where I commando out around the house and do a massive house and yardwork blitz. Short term pain to eliminate as much ongoing work as possible."
But he always returns to the day-to-day challenges, where days are spent at work and evenings are split between time with his family and time studying. He concludes, "Having set blocks of time helps set limits on how much time I pour into school. The reality is that this is always a challenge balancing this stuff. "
Advice for Other Prospective Online Students
Asked what he’d say to other working Dads and others considering distance learning, Andrew replied, "It's still a commitment, and you need to be disciplined and self-motivated. I wasn't in my 20's and didn't finish my Athabasca University program. I'm a lot more disciplined – mature? – now, and get great results."
Steve Foerster is an educational technologist and consultant based in Alexandria, Virginia. He serves on the Community Council of WikiEducator, a project that develops free educational materials for use in the developing world.
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