CHARLOTTE, N.C.—When Rodney Owens graduated from high school in 1991, his choice seemed clear: go to a four-year college or get a job. Now, decades later, he realizes there are other options, and he’s made it his mission to let young high school graduates know that.
SEATTLE—Cesar Ivan Fernandez always thought that if he could get back to school, his life would be better. After dropping out of college, working in several jobs, moving frequently, getting married and trying for years to clarify his immigration status, Fernandez returned to school in 2015 at Seattle Central College. He is now on track […]
STANLEY, N.C.—Nicholas Kwiatkowski gave his younger brother, Lukas, his first job. Lukas later returned the favor, showing Nick a path to a career.
AUSTIN, Texas—Sometimes it just takes a change of scene to change a life. Just ask José Cancino.
SEATTLE—Maliaka White was scared. A single mother of two, she suddenly found herself out of work. That’s when she decided she would try again—for the fourth time—to further her education.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Chris Mulford was deployed to Jordan and Kuwait with the North Carolina Army National Guard when he decided he needed to plan for the future.
AUSTIN, Texas—Marcia McCallum graduated from high school in 1983. She decided to continue her education 29 years later. A lot of life happened in between.
Miriam and Mark Blackman run a small machine shop in the Texarkana region of southwest Arkansas. The site is rural, but the work is increasingly high-tech – particularly since the couple’s recent purchase of a computer-controlled metalworking machine. However, by applying what she’s learned in a competency-based education program in nearby Marshall, Texas, Miriam is staying ahead of the technology.
Even as a busy young mother and a partner in her husband’s business, Amy Archuleta always harbored twin dreams: to earn a college degree and start a business of her own. Today, the Salt Lake City woman is realizing both of those dreams, thanks to an innovative degree program that gives students the chance to take what they learn in the classroom and apply those lessons in the real world.
Linda Thayer lives – and essentially works three jobs – in the lake country of far-northern Wisconsin, in tiny town 22 miles from the nearest McDonald’s. To advance her career in health care, she knew she needed to upgrade her credentials by earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. But lack of time and her remote location complicated that quest – that is, until she discovered a program with the right kind of “Flex.”