Well, here we are and I’m already a day late. I had planned to start blogging on a daily basis, as of yesterday. I guess in a way, it’s a good thing it wasn’t a “New Year’s Resolution”, because I would already have broken it.
I don’t really believe in New Year’s Resolutions. Most people end up making promises they will never keep. As for me, I just resolve to keep on going the way I am. However, this new year does bring some new direction to my life.
For the first time in almost 20 years, I’m going back to school. I’ve been either putting it off, or convincing myself I wouldn’t need it. For the past 20 years I’ve been telling myself I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, and I’ve worked enough various jobs to prove it.
I worked for U-Haul, doing everything from cleaning and maintaining trucks and trailers, to completing contracts to opening and closing the business every day.
I worked for Avis, just cleaning cars.
I got a degree in Automotive Technology.
I worked for an instant lube place, doing oil changes and tune-ups on cars, trucks, etc.
I worked as an inside sales rep for an industrial process control company.
I worked for HP as a production operator.
I worked for Itron as a technician.
I did 20 years in the Washington Air National Guard in electronics maintenance.
I’ve been a worker, a supervisor and a manager.
All that time, I’ve tried to figure out what it is I want to do. All that time I kept getting my feet wet in various jobs, but I don’t think it was until I took my last job, that I really realized where I wanted to go and what it was going to take, to get there.
Even in my very first job, during High School, working for that U-Haul, I was given a taste of management. Oh at that time it wasn’t a big taste, but it -was- a taste. Later, working at HP, I was given a little more, when I was asked to help manage part of the flexible workforce program. Then, when I started work for Itron, I had a manager that relied on me very early on, to help out with things normally taken care of by the principle electrical engineer.
I worked at Itron for nearly 10 years. I had a great desire to do more in project management, and lower level management in general, but I wasn’t getting anywhere.
I was too consumed with just “getting there”, that I wasn’t paying attention to the path. In today’s world, especially with larger companies, the path starts with that little piece of paper that says you have a degree, and I didn’t have one. I sincerely admired those people who had taken a large portion of their life and earned a degree. I also knew that experience was half the battle. Unfortunately, I eventually found out you can’t win the battle with just experience. Sad really.
So late last year, I resolved that if I wanted to get any further down this road, I had to go back to school. To that end, I took the advice of a friend, and looked into an accelerated program of education, offered by one of our local colleges.
Whitworth College has a program for adults working full time, who wish to get the same level of education and earn a degree, as those going to school full-time. The program is an “accelerated” one; structured a bit differently, and contrary to the name, taking almost as much time to complete as a full-time student. The difference is in how the classes are taught.
Instead of attending several classes a day, five days a week for an entire semester, students attend one night a week for six weeks, plus two Saturdays’. The one night each week usually consists of a four hour session. The two Saturdays are all-day. The overall credit hours end up being very close to what it would be for a regular class. The classes are taken one at a time, instead of taking several at once. The advantage here is the student can focus on one topic, one class, until it is done. Instead of studying two, three or more subjects, the student can really dig in deep on just one, get it done, and move on.
After transferring credits from The Community College of The Air Force, from my National Guard days, and from the local community colleges which I’ve attended off and on throughout the years, I am entering Whitworth as a high-level Sophomore, or an entry-level Junior. All that really means, is that most of my general credits have been taken care of. There are still a number of requirements that I will be taking, but I’m pretty much half-way there. The rest of the program is what they call a “cohort”.
When I took Automotive Technology back in 1983, it was called a “block” program. Whitworth’s cohort program is very similar. In simple terms, a student enters the program at one of two times each each year when the program is offered. Each entry point starts the same path. The student enters the program in a specific class, then progresses through each class, in sequence, until finished. In essence, once a student starts the cohort, their path through college is already mapped out and planned for the next two years. What could be simpler?
Well, already having your books and other fees paid for, up front would be simpler, and that is exactly what happens in the accelerated classes. If a person were to break down the costs, it might be a bit more or a bit less, but the tuition fees for the accelerated programs are pre-set. That pre-set fee covers the cost of class enrollment, plus any textbooks, lab fees, or other fees. A student shows up for the first day of class, and the books are already there. This is very convenient, especially for those (like me) who work during the day and would find it difficult to get to the college to buy books.
So here I am, about to embark on the next major journey of my life. My course map takes me through late 2008, that’s over two and half years. I guess if I got through the last 20, I’ll get through the next two without too much trouble. I also have a wife who is providing encouragement, and other friends who know I wish to become more. Thankfully, I have a lot of good friends, and I’m sure they will see me through it.
Currently, my course schedule can be found on my Web Calendar. I’ll be updating it as time goes on and putting a link to it in the sidebar.
Oh yes, once finished, I will have a BA degree in Organizational Management. I pray I learn a lot.
Asa Jay
Entries (RSS)