Twenty years into her career as an accountant, Lisa Frasieur felt like she was a peg below her peers. Truth be told, she was. “The first time I sat with our auditors, they asked me where I went to school,” she says now. “I didn’t have a degree, and it was embarrassing.”
No obstacle could stand in the way as Maria Carpenter pursued her agricultural sciences degree – not her additional responsibilities as a parent and employee, nor a breast cancer diagnosis that came shortly after beginning her degree program.
Accepting comfort was not enough of a challenge for Gustavo Ramos Nuñez, whose decision to enroll in the Spanish bachelor’s degree program online through Oregon State Ecampus arose from honoring his Peruvian roots and a desire for self-improvement.
Chris Holt was well-settled into a career that was stable and provided for his family, but when the long hours kept him away from home too often and his passion for plants pulled him in a new direction, he chose to follow the call. The hands-on experience he gained in the horticulture program led him outdoors to conduct field work for his courses, into his dream job as a middle school agriculture teacher – and most importantly, back home, where he can spend more valuable time with his family.
The corporate ladder quickly runs out of rungs for many people like Patric Papabathini who haven’t graduated from college. His lack of a degree prevented him from applying for management jobs that he was confident – after four years of working at Microsoft – he could thrive in if only given the chance. The message, however, was loud and clear. “Without a degree, I had no chance,” he says.
The map arrived in Lindsay Caplan’s mailbox, having traversed nearly 3,000 miles from Oregon State University to her home in Maryland. It was part of a wilderness excursion for a class in Oregon State’s fisheries and wildlife sciences online degree program – a hands-on learning activity that helped Caplan develop a strong connection to the university despite living on the opposite side of the country. Now, several years later and without ever setting foot on campus, she’s among a record-setting 1,065 students who will graduate Saturday, June 16, after completing degree requirements online through OSU Ecampus.
Whether they’re at home, commuting to work or crossing the globe, Oregon State Ecampus students are able to pick up their classroom and carry it with them to the next adventure. So when Adrianna Gordon received an email from her academic advisor about a faculty-led study abroad trip to Vancouver, Canada, she was ready to pack her bags.
The past does not dictate the possibilities for one’s future. Erin Mathias knows this firsthand. She enrolled online in the Ecampus fisheries and wildlife sciences program to pursue her dream career, becoming the role model she needed when she was younger and serving as inspiration to her siblings and African American girls who want to enter STEM fields.
How old were you when you discovered your dream job? Many of us are still trying to figure it out. Not Jason Deger. He knew at a young age – thanks to camping trips with his dad in national parks – that he would someday be a park ranger. It wasn’t a matter of debate. It was a matter of time. And it took years. But he never wavered in his pursuit.
“I decided to go back to school to earn my degree because my wife, Courtney, and I got married and we were having a child, and I wanted to move up in the company I was working for,” says economics alum Eric Broadfoot. “Given all of those aspects, I knew it was very important to finish my education.”
