2010 Ecampus Graduates

Anthony Coughran

B.S. Liberal Studies
Frederick, Maryland

What does completing your degree mean to you? How do you feel it will improve your life and career? I began this degree in 1989 and the sense of accomplishment I will get when I receive my diploma will be transcendent. I came back to school to make myself more marketable in my career, but also to provide an example for my stepson on the importance of higher education in life. He wants to be a Beaver when he goes to school and seeing me walk will be a great inspiration to him.

As for how it will improve my career, a baccalaureate degree is pretty much the minimum education requirement for my profession and achieving it will open up doors that had been previously inaccessible to me.

Why did you choose to complete your degree online through OSU Extended Campus? What did you like about this method of education?  Aside from my loyalty to what is now my alma mater, after a small bit of research I found that OSU was actually the most economical of the online degree systems prevalent in the information age. I like the flexibility of schedule available to me in most of the online courses. Being a father of three and working/commuting 60 hours a week, flexibility was imperative to both my professional and family life.

Did you have an instructor or advisor who was influential in helping you succeed as a distance student? There was an instructor that I truly enjoyed because he inspired us to organize our thoughts and arguments in a constructive manner and then encouraged us to support our ideas. When our arguments were weak and poorly supported he called us on it, and when we supported our thoughts and convictions we were praised. His name was David Petersen Del Mar and I took every history class that he presided over. The only reason I stopped was because I completed all of the classes that he instructs. I liked history before taking his classes but Professor Petersen - Del Mar inspired me to love it.

What will your Ecampus degree allow you to do that you were unable to do before? My work through OSU and Ecampus has opened new horizons in virtually every aspect of my personal and professional life. I am now more marketable as well as promotable. The sense of accomplishment of my degree completion has given me confidence to try harder and reach farther than I have before in every aspect of my life.

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