When it comes to job opportunity, and advancement, is
it time to follow your passion and finally take steps to boost
your career, increase your income, and maybe improve your
life.
With us, discussing how women can use the power of the
internet to accomplish academic and career goals is Alicia
Harckliss, associate director of education technology at
Alabama's Troy University.
Good morning.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for having me.
You know, Alicia, I want to talk about just women and trying to
do more with their lives and I think now more than ever, women
are just going for everything.
Right.
Sometimes they can't put themselves first, they put the
children first, it's really tough to go for that passion.
It is.
Women now, more than ever, are doing more than ever.
They're working full time.
They're taking care of their kids.
Maintaining a marriage.
Yes.
They want go back and get their degrees as well and online
definitely helps them with that.
One of the great things about Troy University is that they
have several ways that they can get a degree.
You can do fully online courses, or you can do a hybrid, or you
can actually go to one of the campuses to get a degree.
And it's never too late because, like I always tell my girls,
they're only 11 and 13 right now, it doesn't matter.
They need to hear this.
Getting a college degree is really important, girls.
No matter what age.
It makes a difference in life.
It empowers you, doesn't it?
It does.
One of the things I tell my students in my class is that
education is a journey, not a destination.
That's great.
One of them, they always ask, why do you keep going back to
get degrees?
And I tell them, it's not actually the degree.
I love learning, so I continue to go back to find out new
things and do more with education.
You have to stay abreast of what's going on.
I always tell them, just because you've gotten this one degree,
keep going.
Things change.
You learn more things and you're able to excel more in your job
that way.
But let's be honest, and I'm going to be the devil's advocate
here, you're single, you're not married, you don't have
children, and you have four degrees, right?
I do.
So now, let's look at me.
Married, children, I work, there's homework, laundry,
cooking, let's go on and on and on.
What options are there for women like me that say "okay, well I
have the time.
This is really hard."
You do have the time.
Online classes let you set your own schedule.
So, you may be able to do your classes in between doing
laundry.
Or you might be able to do your classes in between cooking
dinner.
It's asynchrony, so you do not have to sit at the computer at a
certain time to get information done.
You set up your schedule and you sit there and do whatever you
need to do in order to get the degree.
Which is important, because I know you have your campus, but
the online, then again, let's you be flexible, right?
Yes, very flexible.
It can be in between your full time job.
What are some popular online courses that you see a lot of
students, or women my age even, going for today?
Well, we actually offer criminal justice.
I actually have a degree in that.
Love that.
Computer science.
I work in that.
We're seeing a lot more women go into this field than ever
before.
It's usually a male dominated field, but we're seeing that
now, that they are going out and getting computer science
degrees.
Psychology is another big one that Troy offers, as well.
And I understand also, as well, Troy has a very special
relationship with the military personnel.
They do.
Now Troy loves all of their students, but our chancellor
really understands, because he was in the armed forces as well,
he really understand that a lot of our armed forces want to
continue their education but they don't have the time because
they're fighting wars, or they're over in other countries,
but Troy offers such a quality education that one of the ways
they're able to do that is that they partnered with the military
and they help them with their financial aid.
They help them with their classes and setting up advisors
so that they can get their education while they're
protecting our country.
And if someone is interested in doing an online course with
Troy, are we talking nationwide, or can they do international as
well?
It is international.
We have campuses in other countries as well.
And when it comes to also doing the online courses, you do it at
your own pace?
Is there support also along the way?
Because sometimes you lose that personal connection with
somebody.
Well, one of the things that I think Troy really prides
themselves on, they want the online community
to be just like how you would be if you were at a brick and
mortar college, so they've set up Trojan Cafe, which is our
online community for people who are taking classes everywhere to
have a one-stop shop where they can go and communicate with
people who have already completed a degree, and find out
how they did it.
How did they manage going to work, and having a family and a
husband.
And so, they offer different areas of Trojan Cafe.
We also have a lot of organizations in Blackboard that
they can join so that they have that sense of community as well.
So really, something for someone in their 20's, 30's, 40's and
50's, and I can even just go on up to their 60's and 70's.
Yes.
We have students of all ages.
I have a few in my class.
There you go.
What's the website for Troy?
It's Troy.edu/etroy.
Thank you so much for your time.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
And of course, if you'd like more information on this segment
and Troy University, you can also visit us at
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