With purple hair, cat-eye glasses, and homemade earrings, Kelli Sipes doesn’t look like the typical corporate employee. However, it is these details that make her a successful one. The 2025 graduate of the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC) works as a senior trainer at T-Mobile and spends significant time teaching new employees how to master their craft.
“I have been an inspiration for leaders here at T-Mobile because I don't look like the traditional trainer,” she says. “It feels good to be the inspiration, whether I know it or not.”
Her flair for drama continues to serve her. Early days in theater turned into a career that focuses on providing her fellow professionals with the tools necessary to conduct effective, customer-facing interactions. Luckily, her academics fall in line with this mission, and she continues to pursue higher education as it relates to her career as well as her passions.
The Theater of Life
Kelli moved through her early schooling years in traditional fashion in her hometown of Yukon, OK. When the time arrived to attend college, however, she decided higher education wasn’t in the cards and instead entered the corporate world right after high school.
Her original desired path was to become a theater instructor in Oklahoma. The logistics of living in a smaller town made that difficult, but that didn’t stop Kelli from staying involved. Before she eventually made her way into college at another institution, her roles included behind-the-scenes work that proved integral to every performance.
“We didn't have a theater department, but me and one other student made one and we put on two plays, one for each semester,” Kelli explains. “I did costuming, makeup, set design, lighting, music. I was basically the assistant director for that one, because he was the director.”
Though she no longer pursues a career on or behind the stage, theater remains as a comforting presence in Kelli’s life. When time allows, she frequents local playhouses like the Civic Center in Oklahoma City to see productions such as “Mamma Mia,” “Phantom of the Opera,” and other famous works.
The Working Stage
Now, Kelli combines creative and technical elements in her career where she facilitates “programs” for new employees that include learning activities, content, gamified simulations, and more. As a senior trainer at T-Mobile, her responsibilities extend to working with new hires on best practices for their customer assistant role in a constructive setting, eventually transitioning them out onto the sales floor.
“I teach them all of the foundational learning, like our knowledge base, using the curriculum that was designed, teaching them the knowledge base, teaching them things customers call in about, giving them the opportunity to role play it with a low-stakes learning environment.”
Kelli truly combines acting with working to showcase the skills needed to conduct successful interactions, joking that it’s her “highest paying acting job.” However, while she excels in this position, her real passion is creation and she hopes to produce instructional materials for T-Mobile employees with her newfound skills.
“I have realized as a trainer I am not a people manager. I am an individual contributor,” she says. “I think the project manager has the element of managing people, but I just want to be responsible for my own job.”
Education For the Role
Like many non-traditional student experiences, UAGC fit into Kelli’s life. A degree would provide her with the elevation she sought in her career, and UAGC had the exact program she needed. In addition to this flexibility, her company made it that much easier to complete a degree program through tuition assistance.
“T-Mobile offers a full tuition grant, and the only school that had instructional design was at UAGC,” Kelli explains. “It was just a natural fit.”
Just because it was natural, however, didn’t mean it was easy.
Kelli recalls restarting her education in adulthood as a successful, yet difficult venture, where she struggled with the initial workload.
“I had 20 years to forget how to write a paper,” Kelli says, “so after I finished with class, I was incredibly overwhelmed. I was like, ‘I don't know if this journey is for me, I need a little break.’ As I talked to my advisor, they said, ‘Kelly, you're doing great. If you need to take some time off, go for it.’”
During that time off, she was able to travel to Italy for a reset, where she finished her degree thereafter with no further interruptions. She describes the allowance from UAGC as “complete grace” adding she was grateful for the flexibility.
“I had professors who were willing to work with me because life happens,” she says. “All I had to do was communicate with them and tell them I was having a hard time or that life was happening.”
Extracurriculars were also a last-minute addition to Kelli’s repertoire. She was invited to join the Alpha Sigma Lambda society as a testament to her top-level academic performance. After her coursework was complete, she joined the CHAMPS program as a mentor and is waiting to receive a mentee to guide through the UAGC resources and tools.
While Kelli plans to take another break, a master’s degree at UAGC is on the horizon. She is considering instructional design and technology or teaching and curriculum but would also pursue a degree in project management “to add more to my repertoire,” as she puts it.
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The Bachelor of Arts in Instructional Design is not designed to meet the state educational requirements for teacher licensure or certification in any state. Students seeking teacher licensure shall carefully research their state's requirements prior to enrollment and regularly review the requirements as they are subject to change. Requirements vary by state. Graduates will be subject to additional requirements on a state-by-state basis that will include one or more of the following: student teaching or practicum experience, additional coursework, additional testing, or, if the state requires a specific type of degree, earning an additional degree. None of the University of Arizona Global Campus online education programs are accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), which is a requirement for certification in some states. Other factors, such as a student’s criminal history, may prevent an applicant from obtaining licensure, certification, or employment in their field of study.