While October may be traditionally reserved for pumpkins, pumpkin spice anything and breast cancer awareness, the Children’s Museum of Phoenix is celebrating education with college savings month in October. The Children’s Museum of Phoenix has over 48,000 square feet of learning, imagination and fun and this month they are promoting education in a variety of ways. I wanted to share these great opportunities with my fellow Phoenicians. Continue reading “Children’s Museum of Phoenix Celebrates College Savings Month”
The Alternative to Purchasing Textbooks
As a much indebted college graduate I can share my woes of financial burden and hardship of my college years were spent wasting away in the words and higher learning’s of textbooks. The ever dreaded and might I add bank breaking textbook. Nowadays there are lots of options and alternatives to purchasing textbooks for money savings and recycling.
Much of my textbooks ran in the hundreds of dollars range or they ran into that range due to the fact that I had to have multiple books for the class. Luckily I took a similar class  line as my husband so we were able to share books, albeit some were a bit outdated yet the material was the same. I would shop feverishly to find low priced books or a way to NOT have to buy the books because now I have bookcases stuffed with college text I will probably not refer to again unless I am playing Trivial Pursuit with a gaggle of friends and we are adding alcoholic beverages to the playing lineup. Oh I digress.
However I was introduced to a fabulous website Campus Book Rentals and life saver for college students. Rent your textbooks, purchase at a reduced price and not only do you receive a smoking good deal but the organization supports one of my favorite not for profit organizations Operation Smile. Â Campus Book Rentals has partnered with Operation Smile by donating over 1000 life saving cleft lip surgeries this year to children in need. So for every book that is rented a portion of the proceeds help fund Operation Smile.Talk about two for one with saving money on college textbooks, but your funds are further being used to support a great cause. Don’t just take my word for it, take a gander and try out Campus Book Rentals for more information on saving money while in college.
I am Karie, I am a Phoenix
So here is the deal. A lot of people, moms especially, who, like me, did not have the opportunity to attend a traditional four year college right out of the high school gate. I was awarded a scholarship to the University of Arizona for academics. Quite the honor actually, the scholarship was for high honors in academics and I was only one of a small handful of students to receive the award (I had to maintain a 3.50 GPA in college to keep the scholarship). I was even accepted to Columbia University as well, another high honor. But each instance yielded a problem as an 18 year old kid….MONEY! My folks did not have any and I for sure did not have any making a meager $4.35 an hour for minimum wage back in the day. Plus my part time hours really did not provide any sort of paycheck, except one that did help me pay for gas for my car and my personal necessities and meals when working.
I suffered. Not knowing any different other than I had such a high amount of envy for those who did get to go to a traditional four year college. Those who got to enjoy the “college” experience and lifestyle. I went straight into the work force, I moved out of state, away from the comforts of my family. I had to grow up and not enjoy the young lifestyle everyone else was enjoying.
Not so bad actually since I met a LOT and I mean a LOT of business contacts in my young life, plus a very strong work ethic and impressive resume for my age. When I was 20 I bought my first house and was a finance manager for a large Dodge dealership in Albuquerque. By the time I was 25 I had bought another house with DH in Mesa, sold the house in Albuquerque (which meant we were NEVER going back…WAHOO), and I was working as a loan officer in mortgage firm in north Scottsdale. I had Big G by this time so pretty impressive to continue to work with a new baby. In 2004, the same year we bought and sold our houses DH graduated from college. He had done the whole college experience at UNM and was a fraternity brother alumni (Sigma Chi). But he did the experience like a lot of other kids who had a full paid opportunity by mom and dad…..partied. In 2000 he went back to school for his IT degree, completed in 2004 after moving, taking some time off for personal reasons, etc. So in 2005 I felt my time had come. We agreed when he was done I could go back. And so I did.
I called the University of Phoenix, just like he did and applied. Not knowing your application is accepted immediately I was in! In September of 2005 I began my classes online.
Let me clarify that online is not the easiest way to go to class. I truly thought at the time, online was going to be a breeze. I even sold DH on the idea. Little did I know that THREE LONG HARD years and two kids later what an undertaking going to school, and online school would be.
I had to post to my class 4 out of 7 days a week. This is really harder than it sound when you are working or even at home with kids. Homework. At least two papers a week, one individual and one team paper. Nights, dinners, weekends were sacrificed for the good of my work team to complete a team paper before Monday and to complete my own personal paper.
I had to on some days and nights force myself to log on to class. The days and nights that I wanted to blog. I wanted to sit and read a REAL book and not some boring text book on research and statistics. I had to neglect my home that much longer so that I could log into class, work on my homework, post to discussion questions, and participate with my learning team. Online gave me the option to not log in I felt like it, to avoid class, I did not “physically” have to be present.
I was proud to say on my graduation day that, “I am a Phoenix.”
I used to be afraid to say that I went to the University of Phoenix, but now I am proud. I sport my degree like a big fat piece of bling! I had to cram as much information into five weeks as other students did into 18 weeks at a standard university. I was forced to work with people who were not always pleasant, but because of the UoP structure I had to finish assignments with them, stick it out, work through any conflicts and disagreements.
I now sit here today looking into my horizon of (student loans) my future. I have met one of my thousands and millions of goals and dreams. My next…..my Jurisdoctorate. To be awarded my doctorate degree. To add Esquire, to my name suffix. To practice law in the way I know how to practice law, with my finance experience, contracts, and to uphold the law. I know I can do it, I will do it, I will not let anything stop me or get in my way. I will not use excuses. I did not use excuses before, even though I had plenty. I did not let anything get in my way, even though I did have stuff to get in my way (twin pregnancy, work, married life, kids, myself).
Any of you that have considered going back to school but say, “I’m too old”, “I don’t have the money”, “I don’t have the time” these are excuses. I was afraid. I was terrified. But I conquered my fear in the first class and from then on smooth sailing. Sure I have lots of student loans, but who cares. Can you really put a price on an education? I know I can’t.
Go out and do it. Research what program, what school works for you. Do not let your fears or your self get in the way of what you really want. Talk to an academic advisor, I can give you the name of mine. She was fantastic! She called me with every class telling me how much closer I was to completion and rooting me on through the process.
Just know that goals and dreams can come true and don’t limit yourself to just a single dream or goal, make lots of them, small and large, and don’t let anyone tell you dreams don’t come true.
Graduation
So I checked out how many weeks I have left after I finish all my retarded elective classes…..as taking them online is so much easier than visiting the campus with 3 kids and no time for anything….not even sleep!
I will officially BE DONE with school and my Bachelor of Science in Business Finance in roughly September of 2009!! ONE YEAR LEFT!!! Hooray!!! Then I can do commencement ceremonies the following spring at the new stadium! HOORAY!!!
Then I sit around and do nothing. Yup, I will be an over educated stay at home Mom until the twins go to school. From there….I go back to work…use my expensive ass degree to pay off my student loans and then…..maybe…… conquer the LSAT’s and apply to the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law…..but…..we’ll see. I will just be happy to have my degree’s all finished up…and a JD would be nice….since that has always been my goal….to argue and get paid for it.