University of Phoenix alumnae Daniel Wolf is a self-described late bloomer. He’s the first to say that he just didn’t have the drive or the ambition to go to college right out of high school. Years later, Wolf, now a University of Phoenix business school graduate, credits the University for giving him the drive he needed to complete his degree.
Wolf uses his newly-acquired knowledge every day in his job as a division chief for an airport fire department. He supervises a team of 25 firefighters and says the most important part of his job is to “keep his people safe, so they can keep the population safe.” It’s not something he takes lightly. He describes his primary role as being the one who “organizes the chaos” of an emergency situation. Says Wolf, “I would never have been prepared for this job without the skills I acquired at University of Phoenix.”
TaKisha Kegler says it was a University of Phoenix alumni video that spurred her on to pursue her degree at the age of 42. Working three jobs just to make ends meet, her dream of becoming a special education teacher seemed impossible. However, she saw a University of Phoenix video about Carmen Bravo, who used the information she gained from her nursing degree to save a man from dying from a heart attack. Watching the video, Kegler identified with Carmen, who was also a minority first-generation college student, and was reenergized about her education. “I was so inspired by Carmen’s story,” Kegler said. “I saw myself in that video. I knew I was ready to contact University of Phoenix immediately.” And that’s what she did.
Your boss, family members and friends are all potentially affected by your decision to go back to school, so you can’t leave them out of the equation. If they know what they can and can’t expect from you, it will lessen the blow when you’re inevitably less available than you used to be. As you communicate your needs, give them the chance to do the same. Hernandez recommends working together to come up with a schedule that makes the most sense for everyone.
University of Phoenix offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate business degrees. These include Bachelor of Science degrees in business, accounting, communications and management as well as Master of Business Administration and Master of Management degrees. Students can also pursue a doctorate in a variety of business fields. The university has 22 locations in states around the country and offers online classes to students around the globe. You can learn more about University of Phoenix and view the complete catalog at phoenix.edu.
More than one million students have earned degrees from University of Phoenix since the school was founded in 1976. The University accepts students who have earned a high school diploma, GED or the equivalent. University of Phoenix is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (http://hlcommission.org).