Eric Broadfoot, pictured above with his wife and son, says he chose to enroll with Oregon State Ecampus for its consistent ranking among the top online bachelor’s programs in the nation and the flexibility it offered him as a working professional who needed to provide for his family.
By Julie Cooper
Dec. 14, 2017
You can spend a lifetime waiting for the perfect time to take control of your future. Or you can start now.
For Eric Broadfoot, his “now” came as his family began to grow, and he knew it was his moment to take a step closer toward his aspirations.
“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,” he says. “Given all of those aspects, I knew it was very important to finish my education.”
After extensive research online, Eric chose to enroll with Oregon State University Ecampus for its consistent ranking among the top online bachelor’s programs in the nation and the flexibility it offered him as a working professional who needed to provide for his family.
“Even though my son, Jack, was only an infant while I pursued my degree, I always felt motivated to focus and continue on when I thought about him.”
The Ecampus economics program provided a good framework to make decisions in his job as a project manager for an engineering and construction firm in Madison, Wisconsin.
“I manage heavy industrial construction projects, and economics training allows me to make cost benefit analysis, which is very important on construction projects,” Eric says. “It’s also important in scheduling and budgeting. And the business minor helped me with leadership skills and managing jobs.”
Although he physically wasn’t on campus, Eric says being connected to the professors and using interactive learning materials from a distance were key to his success.
“What I like most about the economics program here at Ecampus is the coursework, the interaction with the faculty and the discussion,” he says. “It was overall just a really great experience.”
While balancing school, a full-time job and other responsibilities proved to be a challenge, his strong support system helped keep him on track.
“When I would feel like my courses and work were overwhelming, my wife and mother told me to just chip away at it, one assignment and one term at a time,” he says. “Even though my son, Jack, was only an infant while I pursued my degree, I always felt motivated to focus and continue on when I thought about him.”
Eric’s perseverance paid off, and in June 2017 he earned a B.S. in Economics degree with a minor in business and entrepreneurship. He and his family traveled from Wisconsin to celebrate his accomplishments at the OSU commencement ceremony.
Eric hopes his degree will give him upward mobility as he pursues career options in project or portfolio management.
“My education’s extremely important,” he says. “It means everything to me that I earned my degree. It was a long journey to get here and sometimes I didn’t think I was going to make it, but now that I’m here, I’m so glad that I did it.”
Julie Cooper is a student marketing writer for Oregon State Ecampus.
EJ Albaugh, a student videographer for Oregon State Ecampus, contributed to the video.
