{"id":1376,"date":"2020-04-21T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/?p=1376"},"modified":"2024-07-23T11:22:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T18:22:24","slug":"business-administration-online-caitlin-brooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/business-administration-online-caitlin-brooks\/","title":{"rendered":"Online business degree takes grad from fighting crime to launching a business"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oregon

Paw enforcement:<\/strong>\u00a0Life has taken Caitlin Brooks from Hawaii to Oregon, from police officer to college graduate \u2013 and now to her role as owner of Heroic Trade<\/a>, a fitness apparel company.<\/p><\/div>\n

Full-time job as a police officer didn’t stop Ecampus alum Caitlin Brooks from earning a business administration online bachelor\u2019s<\/h2>\n

By day, Caitlin Brooks was an online student at Oregon State University Ecampus, completing her business administration online bachelor\u2019s degree<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By night, she was a law enforcement officer who worked odd hours around the clock.<\/p>\n

For Brooks, furthering her education ultimately enabled her to launch her own fitness apparel business. But her journey to reaching that point wasn\u2019t easy given her full-time job and the other challenges she encountered.<\/p>\n

The quality, support and flexibility offered online at Oregon State became essential to her success. She\u2019s an example of an Ecampus graduate who overcame obstacles to earn a degree that changed the course of her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking a full-time job, you can\u2019t really just tell your employer, \u2018Hey, I can\u2019t work these hours because I have to go to class,\u2019\u201d says Brooks, who completed her degree in 2019. \u201cSo I decided that the online program was best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juggling coursework with the night shift<\/h3>\n

Initially, Brooks moved from Hawaii to Oregon to complete her bachelor\u2019s degree in hospitality at OSU-Cascades in Bend. But while attending school, she heard about a job opening at the Deschutes County Sheriff\u2019s Office. Inspired in part by her grandfather \u2013 who had worked in law enforcement \u2013 Brooks applied, putting school on hold for a few years while attending the police academy.<\/p>\n

She worked as a police officer for a few years but then decided to go back to college. She didn\u2019t want to quit her job, however, and knew balancing an education with a full-time role would be difficult.<\/p>\n

This led to her enrolling in an online program with Ecampus, which enabled her to engage with rigorous and relevant coursework on her own schedule. And it made all the difference.<\/p>\n

As a police officer, she says, \u201cYou\u2019re still going to court, and you\u2019re being subpoenaed for different stuff, and you\u2019re testifying, so it\u2019s not a black-and-white job where you leave it and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooks chose to study business administration online, she says, because it creates job opportunities in multiple industries. At first, she struggled as an online student to properly manage her time and recognized that she had to be much stricter when it came to structuring her weekly schedule. She bought a planner to organize her life on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n

She also sought advice from her academic advisor, who helped her map out exactly what courses she would need to earn her degree as quickly as possible. There were many occasions when Brooks would work an entire night shift and then come home at 6:15 a.m. to do two additional hours of schoolwork.<\/p>\n

Staying motivated \u2013 let alone disciplined \u2013 was critical, Brooks says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would write out a month at a time, and then if I needed to, I would put reminders in my phone that I had papers due,\u201d she says. These organizational skills proved to be long-lasting, as she notes that she still uses them in her personal and professional lives.<\/p>\n

Changing careers<\/h3>\n

Fast forward to today, and Brooks is a college graduate \u2013 and no longer a police officer. While wrapping up her degree requirements, she decided to launch a fitness apparel company called Heroic Trade,\u00a0which donates a portion of its profits to first-responder charities.<\/p>\n

Brooks says she learned a great deal in her Ecampus business administration online program that allowed her to establish a business of her own. The feel of the online courses, she says, was also similar to running a business that, for the time being, is strictly online.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s faced her fair share of challenges in launching Heroic Trade. It took Brooks six months to get the inventory she wanted \u2013 much longer than she expected \u2013 and she\u2019s responsible for everything from tax forms and managing the website to product design and manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Still, her experience at OSU Ecampus has benefitted her significantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like all of the business classes were super helpful, down to knowing how to open a business, as far as getting my tax IDs and all of those requirements that people don\u2019t consider,\u201d says Brooks.<\/p>\n

What she learned about accounting, analyzing a market and tailoring products to meet customers\u2019 needs has played a tremendous role in her professional endeavors. Brooks is even considering going back to school for a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

And she has advice for those considering earning an online degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake sure that it\u2019s something you really want to do and that you\u2019re motivated,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ready to take the next step? Count us in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Learn more today.<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span> 3<\/span> minute read<\/span><\/span>For Caitlin Brooks, furthering her education enabled her to launch her own fitness apparel business. But her journey to reaching that point wasn\u2019t easy given her full-time job and the other challenges she encountered. The quality, support and flexibility offered online by OSU Ecampus became essential to her success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3,677,8],"tags":[19,129,301,107,169,25,24],"class_list":["post-1376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-ecampus","category-features","category-students-and-alumni","category-students","tag-business","tag-business-administration","tag-business-and-entrepreneurship","tag-college-of-business","tag-online-degrees","tag-online-education","tag-online-learning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/preview-full-IMG_6314.jpg?fit=792%2C591&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BNSE-mc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1527,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/business-administration-elevates-careers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1376,"position":0},"title":"Business administration degree elevates goals, careers","author":"Carly Fredericks","date":"September 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking the next step in your career is made simple with a bachelor's degree in business administration!","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/all\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/oregon-state-logo-600x400.png?ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1382,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/toby-long-business-administration-online\/","url_meta":{"origin":1376,"position":1},"title":"Learning how to move up at work and get an education","author":"Carly Fredericks","date":"April 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Not long ago, Toby Long constantly found himself trying to schedule work around his school schedule. 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