Student finds success in ultra-flexible MyWay Program

Even though the program is fully online, MyWay offers a lot of support, including communication with a success coordina­tor and access to the UMHB Library and tutoring services. MyWay students can start on the 15th of any month and finish as many classes as they want to in six-month intervals. Monica liked that MyWay let her decide how fast or slow she wanted to progress. As soon as she finished a class, she submitted her work for approval. When she mastered the material, she moved on to the next class.

“It’s definitely more flexible, and you do the work at your own pace,” she said. “But you still have to be very dedicated and self-motivated.”

If a MyWay student misses a “target date” to complete an assignment, the student can move the target date.

“So, if you want to hang out with fami­ly, you can move it,” she said. Monica was motivated to finish by her final target date, though. Her son’s high school graduation date was coming up, and she wanted to get her diploma before he finished.

“I think in my last term, I did 13 classes because I was determined that I was going to walk before my son walked,” she said with a giggle. “So, I put it in overdrive that last term.”

Her laptop was practically “glued to her hip.” Determined not to miss out on her family’s activities, she worked on school at baseball practice, on vacation at the coast, and at her in-laws’ house during Thanksgiv­ing.

“MyWay is really good for the working adult—the working mom or dad—because you can just work on it wherever and whenever,” Monica said. “Because of the schedule that my boys had doing a hundred different things, I don’t think I would have gotten a traditional bachelor’s degree hon­estly, because I didn’t want to miss out on their football games and school events.”

She first learned about the program in 2016 shortly after it launched. She was intrigued but put it on the backburner for a few more years until 2019 when she came to work at UMHB in human resources as a record specialist. She started in July that year and finished in May 2021. In September 2021, she applied for her current job in the registrar’s office as a MyWay Program coordinator, which required a bache­lor’s degree.

“I saw the job description, and I knew I had to apply!” she said. “I was very happy in HR, but they told me to go for it and said, ‘this is why you went to school, to progress!’”

Now, she works with MyWay students, evaluating their classes and getting them into the system so they can complete their degrees in their own time, just like Monica did.

“When I saw this job, I felt it was perfect,” she said. “I feel like I’ve come full circle.”