Most students know what it’s like to spend way too much time trying to figure out how to format the final reference entry of their paper perfectly. Is it a webpage or a website? Is that the author or editor? What should be italicized? Perhaps these questions resonate with you because you have scoured the internet to find this information before hitting “submit” on an assignment. Maybe you mastered every entry in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 6th Edition.

And then they updated to the seventh edition (2020).

Going back to school as a working adult can be very exciting yet overwhelming at the same time, especially for students who dropped out in the past before completing a degree. Taking the leap to continue your education brings on a lot of new challenges. From finding the money to finding time, working adults going back to college face different obstacles than traditional students. However, if you’re prepared, you can easily overcome these obstacles and successfully transition into life as a college student. 

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Emad Rahim, a genocide survivor with an amazing story about motivation.

Change forces have altered the way we live and work. Change forces such as government, politics, economics, technology, sociocultural, and natural- and human-related forces (Weiss, 2015) are a constant. These change forces have directly or indirectly impacted us in many different ways. Covid-19, for example, forced many employees to work from home and created many challenges in our world.

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Traditional schools, including most brick and mortar universities, typically operate on a nine-month academic schedule that was created before the industrial era, back when farming was many people’s main source of income. This allowed students plenty of time to help out on the family farm when the planting season demanded all-hands on deck.

From overcoming tumultuous childhoods and experiencing homelessness firsthand to developing the empathy and wisdom to turn what they’ve learned into a commitment to helping others succeed, our 2020 Alum and Student of the Year* are both on a mission to make a real difference in their communities and the lives of those around them. 

Although she’s lived on the West Coast for most of her adult life, the University of Arizona Global Campus Lead Faculty in the Department of Education & Liberal Arts for the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Allison Rief, considers Connecticut home. Growing up, the tiny town she lived in had one simple claim to fame.

Though we learn something new every day, the earliest years of our lives — from birth to age eight — are considered the most critical to our development. Social and emotional skills, literacy, fine motor skills, and the first displays of deductive reasoning, among others, are all essential to human growth, putting a fine point on the everlasting demand for degree-holding Early Childhood Education professionals.