My personal goal of earning a bachelors degree is very important to me because I failed to complete an associate’s degree ten years ago. I know that Interior Design it is going to be a fantastic adventure to experience working with various elements such as fabrics, furniture, and lighting which will open up a whole new world to design and explore.
I feel that it is imperative to always have a goal and to stay committed and focused no matter how long or turbulent the road is to achieve it. I know that I am a great example of personal strength and perseverance. I will complete my bachelor’s degree online in seven years from now which may be a long road for some, but well worth the struggle.
December 2007 - Posts
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First of all, I am enjoying my winter break from school; I can’t believe that it is half way over already. We took a family vacation out to the Las Vegas area to check out the area before we made our planned move cross county the end of March. I am so glad that we did, because we ended up hating the area. What a difference between Florida and Nevada! It was so cold and windy that I froze and became sick on our first day of vacation and was in agony the entire time.
I did have the opportunity to tour the Art Institute Las Vegas Campus, and to be honest, I was not impressed with the facility. I basically was three computer labs and four classrooms in a business building in a corporate park. The tour took about twenty minutes of my time and I explained to the admissions coordinator that I have been a student of the online division for over a year and that I was interested in perhaps taking a few classes on campus once we relocated out to Vegas. I swear, the personal information that I shared about myself went in one ear and out the other. She spoke to me as if I was completely unaware of the programs with Ai and was pressuring me so hard to make a decision right then and now and sign the enrollment forms before left, she reminded me of a car salesman. I kept telling her that I was touring to see what my future options were and that I wasn’t even sure if I would have the time to enroll in a ground class, I wanted to wait and see what my future held and how much my life would change once we moved.
As a courtesy, I wrote a thank you email to this admissions coordinator to thank her for her time and informed her that we have decided not to relocate, and I received a pretty snotty response back from her. How rude and unprofessional. I am so glad that I will not be attending the LV campus. I feel that I am receiving more support and feedback from my peers online that I would in an actual classroom. I was also informed that the demographics of the campus was mostly under 25 – so I definitely would not fit in with the crowd and probably wouldn’t get the involvement and the energy that I was anticipating. I am so glad that we are not moving and that I will continue as an online student. This whole experience just confirms even more for me that I made the right decision to obtain my degree online.
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Well, finals are winding down, tomorrow is my last day of Introduction to Interior Design, thank god! I definitely need the three week break between now and the winter semester. I have a great advisor named Michael that has been a saint. I had to contact him when I received my schedule the other day due to a slight mix up. The set me up for Theory and Development of Form in the first session and Speech second, but I need to have Speech moved to Session I due to the move and the lack of accessibility to all of my art supplies while we are on the road moving out West. I swear, if it wasn’t for Alisha and Michael helping me out with financial aid paperwork and class schedules, I would be lost and running around with my head cut off trying to get things in order. Tomorrow is also my daughter’s fourteenth birthday, and this is the second time that finals have coincided with her big day. I have really put forth a lot of extra time this class to get a little ahead with the assignments. I am trying to prevent my whole day from being consumed with wrapping class up and having to bump her birthday back a day. There is nothing harder than having to tell your child, I love you and I know it’s your special day, but we have to reschedule it. Tonight I have date night set up with my husband, which I have not spent any alone time with during this class session(5.5 weeks) I think the biggest frustration about school is trying to keep your family happy while trying to balance time for school and putting forth the effort that is needed. Last night I actually thought about giving up school to keep my family together, my husband is so upset with me and unhappy- but I have to keep my head up and the goal in sight of my degree. I have to keep reminding him that the semester is over tomorrow and to be patient with me. Work (my full time job) is getting hectic with updates to the website with our new product line up for 2008. Of course four projects landed on my desk that needs to be done before year end and I leave on Wednesday for a week of vacation with my family for Christmas. After tomorrow, hopefully things will cool down for a bit.
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Since it is the end of the fall semester approaching, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain why and how I chose to be a student of the Art Institute – Online. First of all, the reputation of the Art Institute in my mind has always been similar to how a person might consider Harvard University. I knew at a very early age that I wanted to attend the school, I didn’t know what for then, but it always had the appeal as say Harvard and Yale – but an art school. After one year of giving 100% commitment towards my goal of a bachelor’s degree, I am still tickled pink and honored to be a student at Ai.
My husband actually was the one that suggested that I return back to school when we both became discouraged with our current incomes and the career prospects in our area. I have been a graphic designer, through experience for 10 years, and realized that I have topped out my career growth potential without a degree. I have done it all, print, web, preproduction, promotional items, and licensed consumer products. I needed more. More possibilities, more challenge, something new. I realized that I will never be able to obtain a corporate management position without the degree – that’s where the money’s at. I didn’t want to settle for little peon anymore. I decided to take control of my future.
I initially started to research art schools in Las Vegas (we were going to relocate at the time), but needed to also have the flexibility to take a couple of classes online and start right away, I did not want to lose the excitement and anticipation of returning back to school. I contacted AI- Pittsburgh which is where the online division is, and the Las Vegas campus. I also contacted another art school and compared the curriculum. I was so impressed with the focused classes that I enrolled with Ai- LV the next day. I learned a week later that for some reason, the LV campus did not have the educational accreditation for me to become licensed upon completion of my degree. I had to quickly cancel my enrollment and financial aid and do it all a second time but with the online – Pittsburgh division, boy was that fun. The point is, I was determined not have a reason to get in my way and prevent me from attending the Art Institute; I was going to get my bachelor’s degree one way or another.
I have a few philosophies in life – Wake up every day and give 100%, if something doesn’t go your way, that’s ok, you gave it your best shot”
If you don’t like the way things are, make a change, try something new. If I can work full time for a corporation, run my own home based business, be a parent, spouse, and go to school, anyone can.
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Last night I worked all night until 7 am trying to finish up some side work websites. Then today I spent 6 hours on and off working on a large segment of my final project for my Introduction to Interior Design class. I try to stay focused but there are constantly interruptions between my daughter, husband and the dog. I swear, I get more accomplished at night when everyone is in bed. Tonight I had to remind my husband that this class is over on Saturday, and then I will have a three week break from school. I also had to share with him that I am not working this hard on schoolwork because it is fun, but in fact it is for our future which is hard to see down the long road. Class work takes large chunks from my family time and it can be a tug of war on the old heart strings. It’s hard to have to make a choice to work on homework verses going and doing something fun with my family. We are at home all of the time and it definitely is a strain on all of us.
I feel very positive in regards to the quality of work for the assignment that I worked on today. I am really enjoying exploring fabrics and paint colors, and coordinating all of it to the vision in my head. The next assignment, I have to choose furniture pieces for my project and then the details like metallic finishes and touches. The teacher for this segment has been tough to deal with. It seems like she was on a negative streak with her negative comments and lack of encouragement or direction with the lessons. This week she seems much more positive and happy with everyone’s work.
I purchase the textbook that I need for my next class already. I try to gather all of my materials at least two weeks in advance so that everything arrives on time with the mail. I find most of my books on half.com or eBay to help keep my student budget manageable. I have student loans set up to cover only my tuition, and purchase all of my books and supplies out of pocket, and believe me, it adds up fast. I have had to buy two to three books a class on average in addition to any special papers, pencils, markers, camera, software, and my favorite – my drafting table that I put together and stained myself. It is my prize possession.
Right now my mindset is just getting through this week, then I can relax and go on vacation, spend some quality time with my family and check out our new home in Vegas. I have taught myself that instead of getting so overwhelmed at times with the load that I carry between work, work, family and school , that I can only accomplish so much in a day. I wake up, do the best that I can, and hopefully it will all get done on time.
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I have one week left of my current class Introduction to Interior Design and am really looking forward to the end of the saga. It has been a very difficult and time consuming class for me consisting of five assignments a week and two to three chapters of textbook reading in addition to the lecture. Online classes at the Art Institute are accelerated which means that a class session is five and a half weeks. So being a part time student, I take two classes a semester, one at a time. The advantage of this system is that I only need to focus on one class at a time verses juggling two simultaneously. The negative aspect of it is that I have a final every five weeks. I have completed one year thus far and have seven more years down my road to a bachelor’s degree.
The past two weeks have been very difficult and demanding for me. The week before Thanksgiving, we all became ill in the home, and we had an unexpected car repair and new computer purchase in addition to my mother visiting for the holiday. Life has been so busy between my full time job, running my own home based business and school. I fell behind on side work which is very steady right now before the holiday season.
A little more information about me is that I work full time for a very global recognizable company and design their website. About six months ago, the company was acquired by a very large corporation. Three months ago, this very large corporation was acquired by an even larger corporation. So basically, in the past six months, I have worked for three different companies, without leaving my desk. It has been a very stressful experience with the transformation of corporate America at my door. Due to all of these big corporate mergers, about 250 of my colleagues are being eliminated. I have thus far watched about 150 of them become unemployed. Fortunately for me, my department is the last department to leave on March 28th. Due to the lack of employment in the area, my family and I are relocating from Daytona Beach, Florida to Las Vegas, Nevada for hopes of better employment opportunities, career growth opportunities, and higher wages.
With all of these changes happening with my current employment, it really solidifies the reason for me to continue my education and take control over my own destiny. Job situations change due to someone else’s decisions and control, but an education can never be taken away and it puts the control of my destiny and success in my hands.
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