My Story

What is my story?  I guess I will start with high school.  I went through high school without putting much thought into college.  At the time my family owned a chain of grocery stores, so my thought was that it didn’t matter, I was just going to work at the stores.  Then a series of events led to my family selling the stores and I needed a new plan.  From Junior to Senior year, I still didn’t put much thought into college because I was too uncertain as to what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  I guess I was under the assumption that I needed to know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life when I was 17 years old. 

Once I graduated from high school, I needed a job, so I worked in construction for one of my friend’s fathers through the summer.  After a few months of that, I realized that I needed to do something different with my life.  I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I was certain that I didn’t want to break my back working construction my whole life.  I explored a few options; community college and the military.  I went with the military.

By the following February, I was in Texas for basic training.  I did four years in the active duty Air Force and returned home in 2007 to serve in the MA Air National Guard.  My experience in the Air Force was a great one.  I got to travel to different places and meet a lot of different people.  Unfortunately the job I had in the Air Force wasn’t something that I could use in my civilian life.  I still needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.  I decided to stick with the Air Force area and go to a technical school learning about maintaining aircraft in general aviation. 

After school, I got my FAA certification and started a job maintaining helicopters.  The job had no benefits, and I had to drive 75 miles each way.  I had no guidance or teaching; it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do for the long term.  I started looking for jobs elsewhere.  I found a job in Boston working at a renewable energy company.  I started out as an Assembly Technician making solar-powered inverters.  I really didn’t know anything about solar-powered inverters before I started, but the people I was working with were really good about teaching me. 

Shortly after, I was promoted to Assembly Lead, and then about a year later to Manufacturing Assembly Supervisor.  I have managed to work my way up the chain at Satcon without my degree, but I know that if I want to go any further, I am going to have to get it.  I am not content with just being idle; I need to advance.  My three years at Satcon have been extremely busy.  I tried to take some college courses at night, but it didn’t exactly work out as I was planning.  I took one traditional English class and tried to take a hybrid course which alternated between meeting in class one week, and having an online session the following.  One class wasn’t a problem; adding the second class where we were supposed to meet every other week during the winter was a little more of an issue.  We went through a stretch that winter where we had a lot of snow so I had about a five week period where we didn’t meet in class at all.

Even without the difficulties of not being able to meet for the class, at the rate that I was going, I would have been in school for four years.  Again, not something that I could have done with my work, military and personal schedule.  I believe it was during the following summer that I found out about College Unbound.  At first I was a little skeptical but, once I spoke to Jamie, she alleviated a lot of my concerns.  I loved the idea that I could receive college credit for my life experience and other courses that a traditional college probably wouldn’t have awarded me credit for.  I had tons of experience from the military and from my technical courses, to my professional development courses that I was able to receive credit for.  I was ready to chalk all that up as a loss before I spoke to Jamie.

The other part that really turned me on to CU was how I would be using my everyday job as an internship.  I wouldn’t have to alter my schedule much from my everyday work hours.  I was already spending between 8 and 10 hours a day at work, so I could use some of those extra hours to work on my project for that semester.  I thought it was a great idea to have us as students get the experience of working on a project that we wouldn’t normally be working on.  It gave us experience and it helped the company because it is a real project that someone would have to do anyways; a true win-win scenario.

CU is also great because we are interacting with people who are in similar situations as each other.  We understand what one another are going through, and we can share our experiences, issues, difficulties or what has worked for us and allow others to use that information and learn from it.  We are interacting with people on a more personal level, like you would in a work environment.  We are not just showing up to a class, listening to someone lecture and then going home and trying to process it.  We get involved with each other and provide real useful feedback. 

We are taking real subject matters and relating it to our school, work and everyday lives.  The big ten learning goals are areas that really apply to our jobs.  Hearing stories, or watching videos of real people talk about these subjects, really help us relate them to ourselves.  These subjects are the skills that are going to help us succeed in our careers; they are the skills that people are looking for when they go to hire people.

Something that I am still having difficulty with is finding the time to keep up with the work load.  This year, I have been having difficulties with two online courses that I signed up for with Roger Williams.  I thought it would be a great way to get credits toward my degree, and be able to fit it in my busy schedule.  I thought wrong.  I have found out the hard way that this style of learning doesn’t work for me, at least not in the position I am in now with two little girls and a job that is always changing.  I figured out that if I don’t show up somewhere to show my deliverables, I am going to put it on the back burner and focus on something else that I know I am going to be held accountable for in person.  I know that I can’t show up to one of our Monday sessions without the work that was assigned the week before.  This is something that I am trying to work on as the semester goes on.

Another part that I have had trouble with is that my work is very fluid.  Things are constantly changing, like our business model.  Last year we were planning on building a product in our facility in Boston, so my project was based around that.  Then our model changed again, and my project was no longer applicable.  This year, I started a project and shortly after my company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  I am still able to do the project, but a lot of the people that I was planning on using, have been laid off.  I am still able to complete my project, but I am not sure if it will be implemented.

My story has been filled with a lot of uncertainty.  Uncertain about what I wanted to do in high school.  Uncertain about what I wanted to do after high school.  Uncertain about what kind of school to go to after the military.  Uncertain about where my job was/is going.  The one thing I am certain about is that I need my college degree.  There are many reasons as to why I want my degree, but those aren’t as important as the process of obtaining it.  At CU, there are many great aspects of the program; like the flexibility in schedule, class collaboration, work internships and “real” projects, your degree is not going to be handed to you.  You need to take charge of your own learning and get the work done on your own.  There are going to be plenty of people all around you to offer you help and support, but it is going to be up to you to get the work done.