{"id":203,"date":"2017-06-20T08:33:27","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T12:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/?p=203"},"modified":"2017-08-01T14:07:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T18:07:56","slug":"need-encouragement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/2017\/06\/20\/need-encouragement\/","title":{"rendered":"Need Encouragement for Grad School? Read Melissa’s post…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog by Melissa Vong, MA in Early Childhood Education student\u00a0\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you want something you\u2019ve never had, you have to do something you\u2019ve never done.\u201d \u2013Unknown<\/em><\/p>\n

I have never written a blog post before, but while my piece may be longer than some, if you need encouragement to pursue a graduate degree or to choose U of M-Flint as your school, then I say read on.\u00a0 I promise there is a point to my post.<\/p>\n

It has been almost seven years since I started working on my first degree.\u00a0 My oldest son was starting at the local community college and encouraged me to do the same.\u00a0 At that time, I had been working in a childcare center for over a decade, and while I wanted to learn more about the field of early childhood education, I was scared of going to college.\u00a0 I had done very poorly in school as a child and through the years had come to believe I was not smart enough to succeed in a college setting.\u00a0 However, I knew if I wanted to change my future circumstances, as well as have a more significant impact in my field, then I would have to face my fears.<\/p>\n

Henry Ford once said, \u201cOne of the greatest discoveries a person makes, one of their great surprises, is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn’t do.\u201d\u00a0 It took me four years to finish my associate\u2019s degree; and almost that long for me to start to see in myself what my instructors already did.\u00a0 The first time graduate school was mentioned to me was while I was earning my associate\u2019s degree.\u00a0 I had been encouraged by several of my instructors to obtain a graduate degree, as they felt I would be a good candidate for teaching at the college level.\u00a0 I am going to be very honest and say when they first mentioned graduate school to me I thought they must have been talking to someone else and turned around to see.\u00a0 Then when I realized it was me they were talking to, I thought I must be confused as to what a graduate degree was, and so I asked for clarification, \u201cYou mean, as in a master\u2019s degree?\u201d Indeed, that is what they meant (and no I am not making this up).\u00a0 Why would I share something, which does not put myself in a positive light you might wonder?\u00a0 Stay tuned; I will get to my point shortly.<\/p>\n

After finishing my associate\u2019s degree in May 2014, I enrolled into an online accelerated bachelor’s program.\u00a0 I was nervous to go from part-time to full-time, but I took the plunge.\u00a0 In December of 2015, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education, graduating with Summa Cum Laude honors.\u00a0 As I worked on my bachelor\u2019s degree, with each class I finished, it seemed more possible I would be able to go onto graduate school, and so began the search for the school, which would best fit my needs.\u00a0 This is the part of the story where I explain I learned I excel in online learning because I am highly organized; I do not procrastinate; and I have the type of nature, which likes to expedite things (you know, as in \u201clet\u2019s get to the point, get our work done, and move on\u201d).\u00a0 Again, you may be wondering what my point is, just a second, I am almost there.<\/p>\n

So I had pretty much decided on one of the online schools.\u00a0 I love the convenience and it is a lot less social than brick and mortar, sitting across the table doing group projects with people (I am not sure if we are supposed to put emojis in a blog piece, but just try to imagine the face of a child who has been served liver and onions for dinner; no offense to those who love that sort of thing).\u00a0 Anyways, there I was sitting pretty, ready to start, when who should I run into, but my old college instructor, the one who really wanted me to go to graduate school.\u00a0 I told her my plans to go online, and just as fast she quickly shot them down.\u00a0 If I wanted to work local, then I needed to go local is what she told me (this is where you need to recall the image of the child being served liver and onions \u2013 insert mental image of grumpy face here).\u00a0 Thankfully my faith in her advice was stronger than my aversion to going to class on a campus, with people, and time constraints.\u00a0 Kind of like going to the dentist, I sucked it up and did what needed to be done.<\/p>\n

I am very happy to report, enrolling in graduate school at U of M-Flint was without a doubt<\/em><\/strong> the BEST decision of my academic career.\u00a0 Graduate school was a good idea, but choosing U of M-Flint was a GREAT<\/em> idea!\u00a0 From the day I went to orientation, I knew I was in the right place.\u00a0 It was such an incredible feeling to know I was in the company of other professionals, who shared my dreams of pursuing a higher degree in an effort to grow academically and professionally.<\/p>\n

The professors I have had are truly passionate people who care about the field and about their students.\u00a0 The small class sizes (so far I have been in classes of twelve people or less) have given us the opportunity to do much reflection on the material we are studying, which gives the chance to learn from another\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 Graduate school has truly been a rewarding experience.\u00a0 I have lived in many locales, both in and out of the country.\u00a0 I feel I came to my classes with much life experiences already.\u00a0 Graduate school at U of M-Flint has been an experience I am so glad I did not miss out on.\u00a0 I have not yet completed my degree, but already the knowledge I have gained and the connections I have made, have opened doors to opportunities I did not expect.<\/p>\n

When I started college back in 2010, I never imagined I would make it this far.\u00a0 Sir Edmund Hillary is known for having said, \u201cIt is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0I have learned so much about myself, and my capabilities over the course of the past seven years.\u00a0 In the past year and a half, since starting graduate school I have learned as much about myself as I have about topics pertaining to the field of early childhood education. \u00a0I hope to use my degree to go back to where I started and encourage others to continue on the path to their own successes.\u00a0 I leave you with a statement, which has brought encouragement to me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

No matter what the degree you are obtaining, going to college is a mountain we have to climb a step at a time.\u00a0 However, take it from someone who has been climbing for the past seven years, the views along the way, especially the higher you go are absolutely spectacular!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog by Melissa Vong, MA in Early Childhood Education student\u00a0 \u201cWhen you want something you\u2019ve never had, you have to do something you\u2019ve never done.\u201d \u2013Unknown I have never written a blog post before, but while my piece may be longer than some, if you need encouragement to pursue a graduate degree or to choose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,13,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-early-childhood-education","category-graduate-school-general","category-motivation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}