Student 1

Degree: Bachelor of Science
Registered Area: Business, Management and Economics
Concentration: Business Administration

I am currently attending Empire State College to obtain an associate and bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. While contemplating returning to school, I was running a used auto parts business online, from my home, and carrying on all the tasks of the business by myself. However, with this venture I found there to be some errors in my ways. I never had a formal background in business and did not know how to effectively manage the money flow. The accounting aspect for me was horrible. Also while attempting to be professional in all business aspects, I had contracts for every sale I had with other individuals. However, I never realized how many legal clauses there are. When dealing with the general public it is very important to understand the laws and how to express your legal rights in a contract. I never thought very much about legal clauses until I had an incident with a customer who had issues and decided to try to sue me for more than the part’s monetary worth in court. If I did not have a well written legal and binding contract, I could have suffered a great loss to such a small business.

When I do achieve my bachelor’s degree from Empire State College, I will be opening up my own business again. However, I will hopefully be able to change a lot of the more technical business aspects (such as accounting and contracts). While attending school, I hope to gain further knowledge on my writing skills of legal documentation, broaden my outlook on what laws there are and learn how to effectively manage the cash flow of the business.

I would like to further strengthen my writing and communication skills with others as most of my clientele is from the internet. When speaking to a prospective customer on the telephone, it is very important to sound well educated and professional as most of my customers I never meet. With my further education, I hope to discover my hidden talents like I have found in my writing. I would like to learn more about how to help me manage my time and, eventually, my employees’ time schedules. As a business owner, I must have the potential to effectively manage employees and the daily life of my business which is what I hope to achieve from my degree.

I would like to expand my business, to include employees, within the next five years and possibly obtain a much larger base than I had before with the addition of employees that work for me. My degrees will help me obtain my professional goals as I will be able to utilize my writing, accounting and managerial skills to better my own business.

Student 2

Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Registered Area: Community and Human Services
Concentration: Human Services

Goals and Contexts
I am returning to college after a long break. I began school directly out of high school with the idea that I would become an accountant. This first attempt was less than successful. I later returned to school and through self assessment determined that the appropriate field for me was social work. I began working on a major in social work in a Michigan Community College system at Davenport College, and then at Grand Rapids Community College and at Edison College in Florida. I later transferred to Florida Gulf Coast University College. It was at the Florida Gulf Coast University that I earned my Associates of Arts in Social Work. I graduated while nine months pregnant with my first son.

It took me about three years to return to college after that. I enrolled in a University that did not offer a B.S. in Social Work, but rather in Human Services. It was there that I began to pursue my degree in Human Services. I completed many service hours in the field working in a homeless shelter, a teen shelter, and doing outreach work with Lutheran Family Services of SW Florida. As I began upper level courses I also bought a business. The business later suffered a hurricane and I was ultimately forced to postpone my education yet another time. I eventually moved to where I began work with adults diagnosed with developmental disabilities. I recently resigned from my position in order to stay home with my second baby and complete my degree. I want my boys to understand the importance of education. I believe that through me they can learn that it is obtainable and important to complete what was started. I also will get self-gratification in knowing that I will be fulfilling my dream and returning to the world all the kindness and support that was bestowed onto me as a child. My childhood was text book dysfunctional; I have been faced with making decisions that were not always the best for my well being and yet came out on top as a mature, healthy, and happy individual. I am completely committed to applying all my personal experience in combination with my education and doing all that I can in my profession.

At this point I am taking one day at a time. I want to complete my B.S. degree in Community and Human Services with a concentration in Human Services. I plan on taking some additional time to work in the field and gain professional experience in applying what I have learned. My ultimate goal, though, is to complete a Master’s Program in Social Work and later become a licensed Social Worker with my own private practice.