This portion of New Day Northwest
is sponsored by WGU Washington.
Welcome back to new day.
Education is one of the most powerful
tools out there and I know so many of us.
We think about going back to school,
but maybe just feels out of reach.
Well, this is the perfect time to consider
it as you'll hear in this conversation
with online university WGU Washington.
Doctor Drake I know that WGU and
new day we are both celebrating
this concept of New Year. New you.
What does that mean to you and how
do you hope it'll inspire others
and their dreams and goals in 2022.
You know in 2022 I'm hearing so much
about this really wholesale change.
People are making their
lifestyles their careers.
When I talk to employers that we
work with and read newspapers,
they're calling it the great resignation.
Yeah, when I talked to like
friends and family and students,
they're really describing it as
sort of this reinvention about what
they want to be after this pandemic.
And it's really fun to see.
Sort of these wholesale changes.
People are making
love that I like that idea of.
The great reinvention.
I actually every year.
I think this is the year I'm
going to get my Masters degree.
And Speaking of degrees, Marissa.
Congratulations,
you've earned your degree.
How did that help you?
Reinvent your life.
I think the WGU and getting my degree
really did help reinvent my life,
not just professionally because I
was able to finally get my foot
in the door and human resources,
which was a really hard section to get into,
but also because of all the
things that I went through while
I was also pursuing my degree.
I, you know, broke up with long term
boyfriend moved out of our house.
I purchased a new home I found and fell
in love with my current boyfriend.
We started trying for a baby and.
Struggled with some infertility and
so during all of that it was nice to
have WGU as a distraction and kind of
an anchor point and something that I
could have control over and something
that seemed really chaotic and it all
came together right when it needed to.
I got my degree and found out that I
was pregnant in the same term so it
was really cool. I love that.
Oh my gosh, you're gonna make me
cry girl and you weren't just any
graduate at WGU, you were actually.
A very special milestone,
you were the National
University's 250,000 graduate.
How did you even find out that was you?
I was the 250,000 graduate.
I didn't try very hard to
get that specific number.
But I I really appreciate
being the representative of
all the other graduates too,
because I think that my story
is probably pretty similar to a
lot of other people that are out
there that you know went back to
school to get their degree and make
their lives a little bit better.
And what was it like? I mean,
to be able to celebrate this national
milestone here in Washington?
It was definitely a thrill,
and particularly to honor Marissa
and all that she has accomplished.
She, like she said,
she really is representative of our students.
We went to her work.
We had these huge fantastic balloons.
She was a great sport about it.
We had lots of fun celebrating.
We did it in an outdoor manner,
but it happened to be a beautiful
sunny day in the northwest.
And so it was just great to honor
her and since then she has been a
great sport about telling her story.
Inspiring others were very
excited for her accomplishments.
Oh my gosh,
you should be really proud of that Marissa.
I would just love to hear what both of
you have to say to our viewers about
reinventing themselves professionally.
And you know, in every way in
2022 there's a lot of different
reasons to hold yourself back.
And, you know, make up excuses
about why you can't do something,
but there's so many more reasons
why you should go for it.
If if you're on the fence of
whether or not to go back to school
and it's something that you've.
Always wanted to do,
but you say that you know we're in
the middle of a pandemic or you
have other life events going on.
I'm a perfect example of if I
can do it then you can do it.
You know there's if you have the drives
then then you can really get it done.
I agree
with Marissa, now is the time to act.
I think we all have lots of aspirations
and we talk about it and think about
it and now it's the time just to take
that first step and just look and
inquire about what the possibilities
are and then take a step towards action.
On that and we are super excited
to honor all those who are really
thinking about reinventing themselves.
And so, like you,
we're celebrating New Year new
year with a scholarship.
We're calling it the year of Youth
scholarship and that we would
encourage anyone to check
out. So inspirational if you like to
learn more about what WGU has to offer,
including the scholarship opportunity
Doctor Drake was talking about.
Visit the website on your screen.