This is my first semester at Granite State College and I am looking forward to sharing my experiences (both in college and outside interests) with all of you.
Most of my adult life was spent working in the computer industry, which I found incredibly interesting, but when I was offered an opportunity to continue my education full-time, I jumped at the chance. I received my AS degree in Paralegal Studies at Nashua Community College (an incredible program) in May 2009 and continued another year of studies with courses geared towards the Human Services program (great professors) and the Peace and Social Justice Studies program (another phenomenal program). One of the greatest benefits I received from NCC was in the area of community service. It was my first experience with helping in the community and I spent hundreds of hours doing something that I found I really enjoyed and I can't say enough about Nashua Community College, the staff, administrators, and fellow students.
Though I probably could have stayed "forever," I knew that it was time to go on to the next level in my education and pursue my bachelor's degree. I found during my time at NCC that I also enjoyed subjects such as psychology, sociology, and peace education. A behavioral science degree seemed to be exactly what I wanted. My adviser at NCC suggested that I look into Granite State College. She provided me the name of her contact at GSC at the Manchester New Hampshire College and well... here I am, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science!
At 45 years old, was I bit nervous about going back to school? Certainly. It had been quite some time since I had been in a classroom, but I was driven by the thought of "if not now, when?" And I set about getting all I could out of the experiences and going back to school has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. There are no regrets!
I am now 48 years old and I am looking forward to being here and I am already thinking about how I can take my love of community service and share it with my classmates at Granite State College. Of course, being able to receive my degree in May 2011 is a pretty good "plus" too!
"If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." --African proverb.
I recently saw the above quote from my Granite State College Social Psychology textbook, "Social Psychology" by David G. Myers. There is something about this quote that really seems to resonate with me.
For many years, I believed that working hard would alone get me to the goals and ambitions that I had hoped for in my life. In many ways that is true, because without hard work, I probably wouldn't have gotten far. My choices were very much "I" choices and what "I" would do by my own steam. How much more fulfilling it has been to expand and be active in my community, being a volunteer in several organizations, and to continue my education. I find that college life has expanded my knowledge in many areas, has helped me to "think outside of the box," and has that advantage of being surrounded by many like-minded people who enjoy their degree choices. For me, that degree choice is a bachelor's in Behavioral Science. Granite State College's online adult learning courses has been my primary method of "attending" classes and has really proven to be much more fulfilling than I could have imagined. I'm on class discussion boards almost as much I'm on Facebook! :)
I also find that being in a course at Granite State College doesn't mean that I "go it alone," since there are so many helpful people that I meet up with as I pursue my educational ambitions. I will be continuing on to graduate studies after I complete my bachelor's in Behavioral Science in June. I've put in a lot of individual work that will help me to go quickly, but the quality of the journey is from working with others at Granite State College that has made all of the difference as to how far I will go.
Trying checking out some of the courses that are available at Granite State College and you'll see that together we'll go far!
Dear Mother Nature, 'nuf with the snow! I am ready for Spring!
For me, Spring is the best time of year. The temperature becomes a perfect mix of cool and warm, people are outside more, and nature starts to wake up. Every Spring day brings along something new; new buds on trees, birds I haven't heard for awhile and didn't realize that I missed, and flowers beginning to bloom. I love the feeling that it gives me of new and hopeful beginnings.
One more semester to go before I graduate from Granite State College and start my "new and hopeful" life outside of GSC. The feeling is both satisfying and also a bit scary. It's not always easy trying something new that will be outside of my comfort zone however positive it may be. There was a time when I am sure I felt the same way about entering college. All of the "what ifs" creep up... what if I don't do well, what if I can't find the time, what if, what if, what if. All it took though was one class at a time and now, with the help of GSC's affordable continuing education options and class formats (classroom, online, and weekend intensive), the one class at a time has become a bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science. How exciting!
Continuing my education was the best thing I ever did. Give Granite State College a call and see what "new and hopeful beginnings" are waiting for you!
I don't know if I mentioned it in a previous post, but I am a volunteer as Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) in NH (www.casanh.org). CASA is a great nationwide organization that represents children in the court system who may not have had the best of circumstances in their young lives. CASA has also helped me to see that working with/for others is something I wanted to pursue. What better place or program, but Granite State College's bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science.
As part of being a CASA volunteer though, I'm able to take advantage of the foster parent classes that are offered at GSC. I'm actually taking my first class now through the foster parent classes. The class is Delivering Effective Training and is 12 hours over two days. The class started Monday and will be finishing up tomorrow, Thursday. There is really quite a bit offered in foster parent classes such as Caring for Children with Emotional Disabilities, Unlocking Children's Learning Styles, and Autism Spectrum Disorders (which is one I think I might like to try soon). The courses are offered at the different GSC locations or can be workbook or online.
If you are or considering becoming a foster parent, a current CASA volunteer or DCYF worker, check it out. It might be worth looking into. The courses are non-credit, but might be well worth it for whatever direction you choose in life. It's a good price... FREE! :)
What a snow storm we've had here in southern New Hampshire today. Lots of snow... unfortunately, lots of shoveling too! But I wouldn't trade living here for anything!
What's nice about my online Behavioral Science classes in this weather is that I don't have to miss any class time because of all of this snow. I went out, shoveled a bit, came back in, had a coffee, and did some homework. I have a whole week to complete that week's assignments and the flexibility of an online class is that I can work on my studies throughout the week. No traveling needed and my study hours are based more on the times I have available during the week.
And online classes for adults work out great for stay-at-home moms and those who work outside of the home. You just can't beat the flexibility of online learning.
So if you think you may not have time, contact one of the GSC advisors and see what might be possible! The only regret would be to have never have tried at all. What have you got to lose?
Hope to "see" you at one of the online adult education classes!
Our Winter session has started. I was really excited about the start of this new semester. Part of the reason is that I only have five more courses (including this semester) before I graduate in June with my Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science and I'm looking forward to my courses.
I'll have two online classes for college this semester and one in the classroom at the Manchester NH college campus. I can't say that I'm very good at biology, but I am so looking forward to my class, "The Human Brain." It will be interesting to learn more about different disorders and what parts of the brain are affected. Cool stuff!
I'll also have my Introduction to Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences and Social Psychology - Hi Beth! (Beth was the instructor for my Human Development class too.)
The Intro class is so interesting even though we're only about half way through the first week. Lots of great online discussions as responses to a posted question from our instructor.
I can't wait to see how these classes unfold. I wish in some ways that I had started at Granite State College earlier because they have so many interesting classes being offered through the year. But I'm not complaining! It's because of Granite State College's flexible class schedules and different formats (classroom, online, and weekend intensive) that's allowing me to graduate in June!
Only a few more days until I finish these three courses of the fall semester. I really enjoyed my Human Development class with Beth Benoit (Hi Beth!). Beth is my instructor as well as a fellow Granite State College blogger.
I'm finding my degree specific classes for the bachelor's in Behavioral Science to be so interesting. I want more of it! This may later prove to fall under the category of "be careful of what you wish for," but I don't think so. Beth will also be teaching my online course for Social Psychology, one of the behavioral science classes, and I imagine I will enjoy that just as much as I've enjoyed this one.
It's so nice to get to this stage of my life and really know what I want to focus on and that is to help others. Not that I regret the past, but now I feel more focused and ready to stretch myself to new experiences. When I was in my 30s, going back to school wasn't even a blip on the screen for me, but now... I can't believe how many cool things I've gotten a chance to do in my 40s! A few weeks ago, I received my GSC reminder to submit my "Intent to Graduate" form. How exciting! Two more semesters and I'll have my bachelor's from GSC, the center of adult education. I can hardly believe it.
We're capable of accomplishing so much and life can be so rewarding. I have my ups and downs too, but, wow, life is good!
If I don't write again until after the holidays. I hope your holidays are everything you hoped for and that you have a wonderful new year!
Ok. There. I said it. Unemployed. But this isn't about the who, what, where, why, or how of this topic. A little over three years ago, I was let go from my job, though I have to admit, I was very ready to move on to something new. I am so happy that when I left that job, I made the decision to go back to college. At 47, I received an associates degree in Paralegal Studies. I had always wanted my degree. I knew I could do more and I really wanted to prove that to myself. I'm now continuing on for my bachelor's in Behavioral Science.
Initially, I was able to pay for college out of my own pocket, but as time went on and the job market became tougher and tougher, I applied for financial aid to help me with the costs of going to school. I have student loans now, but I won't need to start paying them until after I graduate. Other students are able to qualify and receive Pell Grants and other types of grants. These grants are for education and never need to be paid back.
What I am trying to say is that being unemployed is a tough spot to be in, but it doesn't mean that I can't continue my education. With Granite State College's flexible schedules of evening, weekend, and online classes, I can look for a job during the day and accept a job when one comes up, without affecting my continuing education or possible employment. Granite State College also has a Financial Aid office that has helped me with applying for financial aid and any questions that I've had along the way.
Going back to school was the best thing I ever did and being unemployed didn't need to interfere with my ambitions. Perhaps there's an opportunity for you as well. Speaking with someone in financial aid about more information to continue your studies at Granite State College may end up being one of the best decisions you've ever made. You won't know unless you try! I'm so glad I did.
Time is flying by and in another couple of weeks we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving day. Amazing, isn't it? The seasons seem to go so quickly and before you know it, another year has gone by. When I was in my 20's... well... let's be honest... I wanted money, a lot of it, and the sooner the better! But college seemed like it would take "forever" and I wasn't ready to put in the time. I wanted everything now. I worked hard, very hard, and I was able to accomplish and experience some terrific things... good pay, travel, my own house. But it took so many more years to get there and, at times, I had to prove myself to others more than my peers who did have college degrees. I don't regret it, but where would I have been if I had started off with a college degree. Who knows, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt, I know that.
Good news (terrific news, actually) is that it's never too late! I can't believe all of the amazing experiences I've had since leaving my job of 20+ years a few years back and going in a completely different direction in my career. I grabbed hold of all of the possibilities of college life and ran with it. Heck, I even played the college mascot at one of Nashua Community College's basketball games. Yup! That's me at 47! What a kick!
So, is it ever too late to go to college? I don't think so! Granite State College has many degrees to suit your interest or, perhaps, working with a Granite State College advisor, create your own! I chose Behavioral Science and I'm psyched about being able to complete my courses via GSC's online courses and by attending both the Manchester NH college campus and the Concord NH college campus. I can't wait to walk in June with my bachelor's in Behavioral Science. How cool!
I thought I would write a bit about the degree that I'm pursuing. I'll be receiving my bachelor's in Behavioral Science in June of next year (2011). What got me interested in Behavioral Science was the community service work I had started while at Nashua Community College. Some of the community service was helping at the local soup kitchen or helping homeless vets with creating resumes and checking online jobs boards. I am a volunteer advocate for victims of violence and have also helped with Habitat for Humanity. I get such good feelings from volunteering in these groups, it's amazing.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to focus on psychology, sociology, and social work, but the Behavioral Science degree offered at Granite State College was perfect to sample a bit of each of those areas. What was interesting too was after taking a quick look at other local colleges, Granite State College appeared to be the only one that offered a Behavioral Science degree. So far I've taken Counseling, Human Development, and Victim Rights and Advocacy. Exactly the topics I'm interested in. Next semester I'll be taking Intro. to Behavioral Science Methods, Social Psychology, and The Human Brain. Cool courses! I can't wait. Which reminds me, don't forget to sign up for courses starting Nov. 22!
It's hard to believe that I'll have my bachelor's in Behavioral Science in less than a year. Granite State College is helping me obtain my dream of having a bachelor's degree and maybe even move on to another University System of New Hampshire University's to pursue my Master's. It is soooo exciting!
It's hard to believe that it's fall. One of my friends on Facebook was saying that they thought they saw some snowflakes early this morning! Winter is coming much too fast, but when I pause to check out the fall colors, it really is a beautiful time of year.
Soooo, this semester is in full swing and we're about halfway through it. I signed up for three courses this semester: "Counseling," "Human Development," and "Human Biology." I'm taking the Counseling class at GSC's Concord NH college campus and taking the other two courses online.
I really wanted to take the Counseling class (an elective) even though it was in Concord and could be a long commute from Southern NH, about 15 minutes from the Mass border. I have found so far though, that it is a much easier and faster commute than I expected. It's convenient that the Concord campus is close to the highway too.
The classes are going well, though I have to admit that Biology is not one of my favorites. Just in general, science has never been one of my strongest subjects. Actually, it finishes dead last on any scale in my life. Though I have to say that even as an online class, Human Biology is going much better for me than I expected. It's a tough subject for me, but the format of Blackboard, the online learning environment, and the instructor's involvement and motivation in the class has helped me to, so far, to have a B average. The instructor deserves a medal!
Blackboard has a number of ways to help a person learn. There are the discussion board questions and topics that instructors post that help to look at something in different ways, there is the text book reading that provides a great source of information, weekly quizzes, and also a semester research project. I thought I might miss face-to-face conversations, but Blackboard and instructors who provide direction and support has made it so that there's almost always an online conversation going on at any time of day.
...I learned from my dog! Ok, maybe not everything, but I love their enthusiasm for life and their need to learn about things around them. This picture is of my dog Sophie (right) and her little friend Franklin (left). Franklin came and visited this summer while his "parents" were on vacation.
They had a great time and he was such a little gentleman. They played all around the house, shared toys, and explored everything they could. In this picture they're checking out a nearby stone wall. Though they may not have all the answers to life, I think they have some good ideas about life and seizing the day, or the moment.
When I left my job several years ago, I started a new life of learning and experiencing. I'm so glad that I took the time to pursue what is "out there" rather than just wondering what it could be like.
Granite State College has given me the opportunity to further my career through online and classroom learning that has the flexibility to explore what is out there. My dog won't be making any life changing decisions anytime soon, but I think she and her "friends" have it right about seizing the day. I try to take the same attitude with my education and how I can approach life. There's no time like the present and GSC helps me to pursue my adult college degree and education, but to also have time to enjoy the journey.
It seems hard to believe that another summer has gone by. At about the time I'm ready to enjoy it, fall starts making its way in.
I wanted you all to know about my first semester at Granite State College. The summer session was the first semester that I have been at GSC and it went by so fast. I took two online courses, Critical Thinking and Victim Rights and Advocacy. I'm pursuing my bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science and chose the Victim Rights course as one of my electives, among a variety of behavioral science classes. I am also a volunteer advocate for victims of violence, so this was a class that I knew I could use as part of my volunteer work. What a great course!
I wasn't sure how the online course would work out, whether I would learn anything or if it would even keep me interested. I was very pleasantly surprised by how well the course went. We used Blackboard, an online learning "environment." There were links for the class discussion board, messages, quizzes, grades, syllabus, and module (usually weekly) descriptions of what was due and when. Every week, our instructor, Kathy Minaert, would post questions/topics on the discussion board for us to answer and we would have weekly quizzes. What was nice about doing the quizzes online was that once we finished a quiz, it was automatically graded, so we could see how we did.
The discussion board always had some interesting discussions going on. We were a diverse group from different backgrounds such as law enforcement, court workers, and education. What a great group to learn from! And Kathy helped out with any questions that we had either through the discussion board or through email.
My first semester at Granite State College went really well and any of the fears that I may have had regarding how engaged I would be were completely removed. It was a terrific introduction to how well online courses are done at GSC.
I started my fall semester in September and I'll share more of that in my upcoming posts!
Ugh… yard work.Well, I suppose I shouldn’t complain considering I haven’t given it much effort at all this summer.Heat waves or no heat waves… the lawn and weeds just seem to appear out of nowhere and grow exponentially.Perhaps some of you can relate.This past weekend I had a few too many thoughts going on in my head and very little frustrates me more than not being able to see clear solutions.What is a woman to do?I weed-whacked.Ahhhh, weed whacking…right up there with shredding paper in a shredding machine.Something about doing those two things seems to help me relax a bit.…but I digress.Anyhow… I actually got quite a bit done around the patio and walkways.It looks pretty good really.Once I had gotten the patio done, I had such great results, that I moved on to the walkway and then to another.The progress I made and the results that I saw motivated me to continue.I’ll probably finish up the other walkway today, because of the good feelings that I have had so far.
So what does this have to do with my education and Granite State College?How long did I put off continuing my education?Too long.Of course, the reasons were many… not enough time, how much out of my day will this take, how much studying will I need to do.It’s no wonder that I took so long to pursue my degree, but once I started, taking just one step at a time, rather than living too much into the future, I saw the progress unfolding.Originally, when I was pursuing an associate’s degree, I thought “two years?! It will take forever!”No, not forever… two years is two years and and the benefits that I got out of learning from others and pursuing an area that I enjoyed made those two years just fly by.Just a few classes at a time gave me such good feelings to continue.Two years (or four years) are going to pass by no matter what.The question that I had to ask myself was whether after two years, did I want to be talking about my completed degree or did I want to still be talking about how long it would take to do it?Either way, two years was going to pass by.How was I going to choose to spend it?I’m so glad I chose to pursue my degree!
A few weeks ago I started getting ready for a job interview that I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting. Through the week though, I started to get nervous and a bit fearful ("what if I don't have the right qualifications?" "what if I don't get the job?") and I started to study... going through all of my notes from my previous jobs, looking up other information that I wanted to become more familiar with, and contacting people that I used to work with to ask for references. Well, at one point I had become so nervous about the interview, I half thought that I might cancel it! Funny what the mind can do.
Before I started attending college, there were a number of times through the years that I talked myself out of going back to college because of unrealistic fears... "it will take too much time" or "do I have what it takes?" Well, I can tell you that at 45 years old I started seriously pursuing a degree and it was the best thing I ever did! I attended Nashua Community College (NCC) and began experiencing what it was like to become a student. Now that I am at Granite State College pursuing my Bachelor's in Behavioral Science, I can continue using the different educational formats that I found at NCC. I can take courses at any number of sites (though I'm closest to Manchester, NH classes) and online. This is my first semester here (online), but so far the instructors have been great with providing help when requested and keeping the online discussions interesting. The online classes at Granite State College are a great way to have flexibility in my schedule.
Btw, my interview went fantastic and they may have a position opening locally in the near future. If I had given into my fears, I would not have had such a great interview nor would I have found myself traveling down this path of higher learning, a decision I am so happy that I made.
Hi! I just finished my first week of my first classes at GSC and they are both online. I had a couple of fears about doing online classes. They sounded like a great opportunity to take a class and work at my own pace during the week from my kitchen. It's still great idea, but my attention span, or lack thereof, is what was causing me a bit of concern. But so far I have found that the online instructors really keep us engaged with readings, postings, and discussion boards. It has been interesting to post my discussion topic and to see others replies and also their discussion topics. Most fun was reading everyone's intro and to see how similar we are in our goals and many of our backgrounds. So even though we're separated by distance, the online class (via Blackboard) has helped to bridge that distance with interesting online conversation and assignments.
Talk to you all soon! mary
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Hi everyone!
along something new; new buds on trees, birds I haven't heard for awhile and didn't realize that I missed, and flowers beginning to bloom. I love the feeling that it gives me of new and hopeful beginnings.
who did have college degrees. I don't regret it, but where would I have been if I had started off with a college degree. Who knows, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt, I know that. 
ed all around the house, shared toys, and explored everything they could. In this picture they're checking out a nearby stone wall. Though they may not have all the answers to life, I think they have some good ideas about life and seizing the day, or the moment.
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