Maryville Online Bachelor’s in Communication Information Session

This recorded webinar provides an overview of the online Bachelor’s in Communication program at Maryville University.

This includes:

Jessica Sa’d:

Here is what we will cover in today’s session. First we will introduce the speakers and share a little bit about Maryville University and who we are. Next we will provide an overview of the online bachelor’s in communication along with the curriculum highlights. Then we will highlight the overall online learning resources, navigation through our simplified admissions process, and conclude with a live Q&A session. Before we get into the details, we are joined by Dr. Rebecca Dohrman, our faculty speaker. She is the bachelor’s in communication program director, and the associate professor. She’ll be answering your questions during the Q&A so please don’t forget to add any program or general experience comments or questions in the Q&A box.

Jessica Sa’d:

And as your host today, my name is Jessica. I am one of the enrollment advisors here for Maryville University online. Let me share a bit about us as a school. Maryville University was founded in 1872 in St. Louis, Missouri, and it was one of the oldest private nonprofit universities in the US. We are also accredited by the higher learning commission and we are recognized by prestigious publications, such as Forbes America’s Top Colleges. We have also been named an Apple Distinguished School, which highlights the university success in creating an innovative learning environment, designed to engage students and support their academic achievement. We are committed to helping you accomplish your personal and professional goals. For nearly 150 years we’ve continually offered a high quality education that embraces innovation and a student’s first focus. We started out as one of the first universities in the region to educate women and today we continue to push the boundaries and prepare students from across the nation, like you, with an online access to pursue higher education without disrupting your life.

Jessica Sa’d:

The end goal is your success, and that’s why 96% of our overall online undergraduate program graduates find a new career in their chosen field or enroll in advanced education programs within six months of graduation. Let’s go on to the communication program details.

Jessica Sa’d:

At Maryville University we recognize that communication and digital media will continue to shift as technology adapts. That’s why we developed an online bachelor’s degree in communication that emphasizes learning by doing. It’s our goal to help you gain hands-on experience executing strategic media projects, using the latest digital media tools. So, not only do you have the opportunity to tailor your degree in one of two concentrations, the first is strategic communication and the second is emerging media strategy and social media, but depending on your concentration and chosen elective, you can earn industry certificates while them as part of the course, such as Google analytics. As part of the program, you will also be working on projects with real clients and participate in an internship to apply what you have learned. As a student at Maryville, you will build towards an individualized portfolio with the selection of your best and very types of writing pieces by the time of graduation. So, you can demonstrate your achievements easily with employers.

Jessica Sa’d:

Let’s break down the curriculum. So, there are total of a 128 credits available for the completion of this degree, but please remember that this amount may change if you have credits to transfer. The acceptance of transfer credit is entirely at the discretion of the registrar’s office at the receiving institution. The curriculum has a mix of general education, communication core, concentration and elective. So, the core communication courses are meant to develop your foundation and various media and communication style and approaches. With courses such as digital media and visual communication. And through the electives, you can choose courses to focus deeper in areas of interest, or to explore a new subject if you wish. An example would be from business studies.

Jessica Sa’d:

Finally, as part of a concentration, you will complete 24 credits, including an internship. The internship requires 135 hours spanning over 16 weeks, which if we break that down is roughly 8.5 hours a week. This is going to help build experience, in addition to what you’re learning. Each concentration has a specific set of courses diving into that area of study. Between concentration courses and communication core courses, you will be able to learn while earning a combination of these industry certificates on the screen, such as Google AdWords and HubSpot Brand Engagement. These certificates are taken as part of the associated courses to maximize your learning from the classroom and industry. These certifications are regularly evaluated for best fit.

Jessica Sa’d:

A communication degree can be versatile as a graduate of the degree you can apply your learning and work in various settings. It is common for those of the bachelor’s of communication degree to work as a PR specialist, a social media manager, or a digital marketer. So the Bureau of Labor Statistics project 4% job growth in media and communication careers from 2019 to 2029, which is as fast as the average. The reference for these statistics is going to be found on the bls.gov website.

Jessica Sa’d:

Now let’s discuss the online learning experience at Maryville University. We understand enrolling to earn a college degree is a big transition, and we want you to feel empowered through it all. That’s why we provide the support you need to be successful with a student’s first mindset that helps ensure you gain relevant real world experience so you’re prepared to be successful in your career on day one.

Jessica Sa’d:

As enrollment advisors, our sole purpose is to partner with you determining if Maryville University is a good fit and also navigate the enrollment process. We serve as your main point of contact through the enrollment process up to the start of classes. Also, as an online student, you will be assigned a student support advisor to guide and assist you via convenient means like text, email, or phone from enrollment through graduation. These advisors are here to assist you with questions, encourage you as you face challenges and connect you to the appropriate resources when you need them. And when you earn your online degree at Maryville, you get the same high quality education as our on-campus students. We’ve been doing this for close to a decade now, and don’t compromise when it comes to academic excellence. Everything we do is designed to be student centric. So, you can be sure you have all the resources and support services you need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. Some of the resources include virtual job periods and online tutoring.

Jessica Sa’d:

Our early access program is another example of how our focus is on you. If you’re considering graduate school, as well as a student of the bachelor’s in communication, you have the opportunity to get a headstart on earning a graduate degree by taking graduate level courses that count towards your undergraduate and graduate degrees. Also, the graduate level early access courses are built at the undergraduate tuition rates. So you can save time and money depending on the number of transfer credits you have. It will impact the available space in your curriculum schedule to qualify for the program. Your student advisor will be able to work with you through that. Eligible graduate programs include, but are not limited to, the masters of arts in strategic communication and leadership, the master’s of arts and management and leadership, and then the master’s of business administration.

Jessica Sa’d:

Now let’s go over the admission requirements, some tips for application and the tuition and financial aid information. Admission requirements can vary depending on your educational background, all applicants are required to complete an online application for admissions and provide previous educational transcripts. There are no entrance exams or application fees. We understand that each student comes from a different educational background, and we are here for you. For further questions it’s always best to set up an appointment with a personal enrollment advisor, they will guide you through the next steps of the process. Applications are accepted throughout the year for six start dates with the next immediate classes starting in May. Applying is a very easy two step process. Your enrollment advisor is here to help guide you throughout the way. Simply complete the free Maryville University online application. After filling out the application, your official transcripts will need to be requested from all institutions previously attended. Just to note, there are no SAT or ACC scores or entrance exams needed.

Jessica Sa’d:

Next I would like to cover tuition and financing options. The cost of this program is $500 per credit hour and not including books and minimal university fees. There is also a $375 per semester, one fee, which covers your access to all services and resources provided by the university. Financial aid and other financing options may be available for those who apply and qualify. Again, please discuss this with your enrollment advisor, additional financing options could potentially be employer tuition reimbursement, military benefits, monthly payment arrangement, federal or private student loans, and the Federal Pell Grants. Also remember to complete your FAFSA. Our school code is 002482. That brings us to the end of our presentation. And we will now get into answering your questions. Again, if you haven’t already, or you have more questions throughout, please add your questions or comments in the Q&A box. If we do not get your question today, an enrollment advisor will follow up with you.

Jessica Sa’d:

Before we jump into answering your questions, I would like to introduce Dr. Rebecca Dohrman, the program director of the bachelor’s in communication at Maryville University. Dr. Dohrman, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Faculty:

Sure, I’d be happy to. I’m delighted to be here today. My name is Rebecca Dohrman. I’m an associate professor of communication at Maryville, and this is my 11th academic year at Maryville. My academic background, I came to Maryville straight from my PhD program at Purdue University. And since I’ve been at Maryville, I’ve done a variety of different consulting projects with local non-profit organizations and national universities, trying to help them with recruitment and [inaudible 00:10:44] students. I’m really happy to be here with you all today. Thanks for asking me to join.

Jessica Sa’d:

Thank you so much for joining. I see we have some questions in the chat. We can maybe get started with some of those as well. We get a lot of questions about our programs. I see one here that talks about, “What advice do you have for students who are unsure if they are a better fit for communication degree or marketing or a liberal arts or English degree?” Do you think you’d be able to take that one Dr. Dohrman?

Faculty:

Absolutely. So, this is a question that we do get often. I’ll say that for me, the strength of our communication program and the reason that a lot of students choose it is that we have been tireless and keeping our program up to date with technology, third-party industry certifications and projects and assignments that are not just rooted in discipline of communication, but are rooted in contemporary practice of marketing and communication. Organizations today we know that communication marketing advertising, these fields really do tend to be merging a lot of organizations. And we believe that our combination of communication theory and applied practice and assignments really set our students up in a very unique way to be prepared for 21st century job market. And that has always been how we have built our program and how it has developed over the years. And I’m very proud of it.

Jessica Sa’d:

All right, awesome. Thank you so much. And I’m seeing here that the audio is a little bit muffled, so let’s see if we can try to fix that here. Can you hear me clearly?

Faculty:

I can, yes. Is this better? Hello can you hear me now?

Jessica Sa’d:

Yeah. Tara, is that a little bit better? Does she sound a lot clearer? We’ll see what Tara says. Let us know if it sounds a bit better Tara, but in the meantime we’ll continue onto the next question. I do see here somebody’s asking a bit about the application process and how long that takes. Oh, perfect. Perfect. Perfect. All right awesome. So, one of the questions is about the length of the application process and how long that takes. Honestly, it just depends on how quickly we get everything in generally for the application process, we do need transcripts and we do need the transcripts as part of the application process. We usually need the application and of course, and then depending on what other aspects you need to it, there could be other factors as well, but the sooner we can get the transcripts in the application in, that’s generally when we can submit the application.

Faculty:

Perfect. Thank you.

Jessica Sa’d:

All right. And I see another question in here and please keep adding questions to the chat guys. You know, if you have any more that pop up, don’t hesitate. I see another one that says how and where do you see students finding work upon graduation? Dr. Dohrman do you think you could take that one?

Faculty:

I’d be glad to just want to check and confirm my audio is working well.

Jessica Sa’d:

Yeah, it looks like in the chat, the volume of perfect. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.

Faculty:

Excellent. So, in terms of where students go after graduation, we have to concentration because we find that our students tend to take one of two paths. (Silence)

Jessica Sa’d:

Dr. Dohrman, I think you cut out for a little bit. Would you mind repeating that? I apologize.

Faculty:

Yeah, no problem. No problem. So, we have two concentrations in our program and we find that students who selects one of the concentrations often want to end up doing different things. Students in the strategic communication concentration tends to go to nonprofit organizations doing something like a marketing specialist or communication specialist. And they might help an organization generally with developing brand strategy, developing campaign strategy, to sell products or reach out to the clients, things like that. Students in the emerging media strategy concentration tend to want to do more digital work.

Faculty:

And so they might go to agencies and run digital strategy for a variety of clients, or they might go to a larger company that’s trying to rebuild a digital team that will help some of our more traditional brands sort of update into the digital space in this year. Does that give you a sense of kind of how it two programs tend to be different or two concentrations?

Jessica Sa’d:

I’m seeing here, the answer was yes. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time today to explain that.

Faculty:

Would it be helpful if I answered the first question again, since the audio was a little muffled?

Jessica Sa’d:

Yeah if you want to try, I think the first question just kind of related more so, what advice do you have for students who are unsure if they were a better fit for a communication degree or marketing or liberal arts or English degree?

Faculty:

Perfect. So, what I respond often when students ask this question is one of the things that we have really focused on in communication. And this is my 11th year with the program and the other two full-time faculty have also been with Maryville for about nine or 10 years. And we’ve been building this program to be both cutting edge, as well as feel rooted in the sort of heart and the core of the communication discipline. And so about five years ago, we began building industry certifications into the program and we have refined that over the year. So, we have a really strong set of certifications that our students pursue while they are pursuing their degree. And I think this is something that really sets us apart as a communication program. So, I’m very proud of the program that we can deliver to students today.

Jessica Sa’d:

Perfect, thank you so much. Yeah. I mean, speaking of the certifications, I saw another question come in a little, to know a little bit more about, how are these certificates taught as part of the curriculum and why are they valuable?

Faculty:

Great question. So, we have a variety of certificates from technology companies like Google HubSpot field’s worth. I know that was mentioned in the presentation. And let me give you an example of how we built one of them into our course. So, in comm three 47, which is strategic communication, writing students build a variety of different writing pieces for a larger portfolio than views to deploy, to events for a nonprofit. One of the pieces that students write in that class is a set of emails that helps an organization take sort of potential event attendees through the process of getting this actually purchased tickets.

Faculty:

And so students are building a email campaign, a set of email campaigns, that have used to move clients or customers for an organization from point A to point B, along with that assignments students work through and achieve the HubSpot email marketing certification. What that certification does is HubSpot is an email marketing tool. It’s a much bigger tool, but one of the things that it does is email marketing. And so students work through a set of videos and training modules on HubSpot, and they end that class, both with the HubSpot certification in email marketing, as well as a set of emails that they have refined and perfected to sort of show their ability. And that’s an example of how we build a [inaudible 00:18:38] into the class. So, the students are both doing the certificate outside of class independently while also doing an assignment that aligned directly with it. Does that answer the question?

Jessica Sa’d:

Yeah, that was amazing. Thank you so much. That was very informative. I see another certificate related question asking “how often do industry certificates change within the curriculum?” as well.

Faculty:

Great question. That is something that we are constantly keeping our eye on. All of our faculty are very active with networking and in our professional community. And we are regularly talking to our part-time faculty who are working full-time in the field, as well as with our own consulting clients and our own connections in the field, to figure out, what is our curriculum missing? How can we push it yet another step ahead? And so each year we update the certification. Now, typically that would be updating one or two of the certifications. So, there’s quite a bit of stability as well in the certifications, but each year we try to raise the bar and include a new certification, into the program or update one that maybe has sometimes there’ll be a certification that comes out that is just more refined or more with a different profound technology company.

Faculty:

So, we’re constantly scanning the market and then looking at our curriculum to see which certifications align with the assignments we’re doing in our classes. Because we don’t just want students to get these certifications and check a box. We want them to get these certifications and also have portfolio pieces that align with those certifications. So, they can say “I have not just a bachelor’s degree, but also these tech certifications and also as another layer, here’s my portfolio where I can demonstrate my knowledge and abilities.”

Jessica Sa’d:

Perfect. That’s amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. I can definitely see the benefits that kind of come within that. That’s awesome. Thank you. One question that I’d like to bring up too, I know that this is typically asked, we regularly get a question regarding the internship. So, if you can talk a little bit about that, Dr. Dohrman, usually people want to know why is the internship mandatory and what value it will bring if they’re already working full time?

Faculty:

Yeah, great question. So, the internship, we find that most students who are coming to the degree program are coming to the degree program, because they’re at a transition point, maybe they still are working full time, but in their mind they have some idea of where they want to go next. And so we see the internship requirement as an opportunity for students to maybe take on a project that will push them to grow and develop deep expertise in a particular area that will help them to secure what it is they want to do next. And so we find the internship can be conceptualized as a project that a student will do that might even be part of their portfolio.

Faculty:

It can also be a separate professional experience, but if people are already working full-time, we often have them talk with someone at their organization to perhaps do an additional project or of some sort, so that they’re able to develop the expertise in a new area that’s not already part of their full-time work. Sometimes students do the internship project for an organization, that they’re already volunteering with, or an organization that is in their community, a family business, something that you know is personally gratifying to them. The internship in total is 135 hours. But as you mentioned in the presentation, because it’s split over 16 weeks, it ends up being manageable to do as a course, if that makes sense. Does that explain a bit more?

Jessica Sa’d:

Yeah. Thank you so much. And you know, in relation to that question, another one popped up on the internship. Somebody asks if they can bypass the internship, if they’re already working full time?

Faculty:

Yeah. Good question. So, students are able to talk with the advisor and the program director to determine if that is appropriate in their situation. I think for students that are already working full time in the field of communication. We have in the past done a waiver of the internship or a substitution of another class in place of the internship. So, as an example, perhaps for one of our strategic marketing concentration students, maybe they’re already working, full-time in marketing and doing media relations. And so we might approve a substitution on the class like COMM 390, which is web design in place of internship. So, a class on web design is still helping push them and grow them because that’s not what they’re doing professionally, but it sort of allows them to develop another layer of expertise, which is really what this whole program is about.

Faculty:

We want to develop students that are layered and complex, and that truly understand the broad, modern landscape of the field of communication, because we know we’re preparing students, not just for the job they’re going to take right after graduation, but for their career. And ultimately we hope that our students will become leaders in their organizations and in the industry. And so we want them to have layers and be ready for understanding, how does web design fit into a larger communication strategy. And so the internship for me is just an invitation to our students to gain deep expertise by doing a project that’s going to stretch that.

Jessica Sa’d:

Definitely. Thank you. Yeah. It’s really nice to hear about the flexibility and I’m sure it’s a real testament to the value of the program and how prepared, would you guys want to make the students. So, that’s really good to hear. Thank you.

Jessica Sa’d:

Perfect. I see one question. I can take this one. The next one is asking a little bit about the GPA requirement and somebody said, what happens if the GPA is below the minimum requirement? That is a fantastic question. So, essentially if the GPA is below the minimum requirement, that’s where we recommend writing an addendum. An addendum is something that you can attach to your application to help strengthen it just to kind of explain what was going on at the time just to give the committee some insight as to what was going on at that moment in time. And it’s something that can be added to strengthen your application.

Jessica Sa’d:

That was a really good question. I hope that was answered. If it wasn’t, please let us know in the questions and answer box. Let’s see here. I know irregularly ask question two is kind of some more examples of the latest client-based projects, Dr. Dohrman, would you be able to talk about the latest client based projects and who they were with and how they were like in terms of format and type of work?

Faculty:

Yeah, absolutely. So, in one of my classes this semester, we are working with a local law firm who is, it’s a very small firm. And so there’s three partners, but they have never really invested in building a grand strategy. And so they have sort of an ad hoc logo and they have a website that sort of uses the same colors, but they really have never been taken through a strategic branding strategy sort of session and deployment.

Faculty:

And so I have students in one of my classes, I’m working with them. The first phase of that project was we did a communication audit to determine where the law firm is at today. And we wanted students to get to know the law firm, to get an understanding of which social media channels they’re already engaged on to get an understanding of what their website is right now. They gave us an email campaign. So, we were able to get a good understanding of where they’re at today. So, that was phase one. If we have to get up to see the client, get to know the clients, look at some competitors to get an understanding of where the client is in relation to their industry because so many industries are different in terms of sort of what’s the expectation of their communication strategy. Now, this user working with is phase two, which is deploying a new communication strategy for the organization to get new business.

Faculty:

And so the students are working on a plan right now for how they would spend a budget that the firm… So, all the students are given the same budget and they’re developing a strategy for how would they, where would they spend their time and financial resources to get this law firm branding improved and so students are creating a variety of graphics, a style guide. Some of them are even redesigning the logo because the law firm gave us carte blanche to do that. And so the students are really able to take this client and put together a plan, which the student will present to the law firm in just a couple of weeks. And then the law firm will select one student group to actually deploy.

Faculty:

So, it’s a really exciting opportunity for our students to get involved in the real work of working with a real client and it’s messy and leave so many questions. And we really have to take this client who in some ways you’re also kind of coaching them through their experts in their field of law, but they’re not experts in what we do. And so it’s a great opportunity for our students to position themselves as they begin to think of themselves as sort of thought leaders in the field. So, that’s been a really fun client project this semester.

Jessica Sa’d:

Wow. That’s amazing. It’s really neat to hear how in-depth it goes and how hands on these projects are. Thank you for taking the time to answer that question.

Faculty:

Perfect. [crosstalk 00:28:29]. One more question I might mention if I could.

Jessica Sa’d:

Yeah, go for it.

Faculty:

I just remembered, I want to also offer a nonprofit example. Last semester one of my classes we worked with a startup nonprofit and their goal was to work and support the families of people who were being released from the prison system and trying to reacclimate to society. And this organization really wanted to support families and supporting people in finding jobs, doing job training, finding resources, so that it reduced the chance that the family member would return to prison. There’s a lot of research that if we can support the families and provide them with different resources, that they can be of use.

Rebecca Dohrman:

And so this nonprofit mission was one that it’s a very noble mission and they did not have a website because they were very new nonprofit if they had done a lot of documents, but they did not have a website. And so our students went through three phases of building out a website for this nonprofit organization. And then one of the students in the class stayed on as an intern for another four and helped the nonprofit build out an email strategy and do a couple of other technical things with the website. So again, this is another example of how our nonprofit organization and also, private companies like law firms can be engaged with clients. So, I just thought I’d offer that as one more example.

Jessica Sa’d:

No, thank you. That’s amazing. It’s really nice to know how far that goes and the different possibilities out there. So, that’s fantastic.

Jessica Sa’d:

Perfect. All right. Awesome. All right. And so I’m seeing another question come in here. Somebody wanted to know a little bit about, they want to know a little bit more about you and the rest of the communication faculty. Dr. Dohrman.

Faculty:

Absolutely. We have a wonderful group of faculty here at Maryville and communication. I mentioned that I have two other full-time colleagues Dr. Justin York started here about a decade ago and his expertise really, he is deep expertise in the work of communication. He has spent many years doing consulting projects with large brands, as well as political campaigns. And so his work in nonverbal communication and public speaking, and also branding is something that really has been a great value to our students. Dr. Carver, Dr. Lilani Carver. She has also been with Maryville for over a decade and her expertise is very deep in leadership and working with global populations.

Faculty:

She has taught abroad multiple times with our students, and she really brings an extraordinary understanding of difference and communication practice and theory to our students. And so her professional experience is with the corporate sector and she does a lot of speaking engagements as well around issues of difference and leadership. And so we’re delighted to have the three of us as full-time faculty.

Faculty:

In addition, we have about 20 part-time faculty who are a mix of professionals working in the field in a variety of different industries who might teach one or two classes for us, as well as we have part-time faculty that teach a few classes for us and really specialize. I can think of one in particular, professor, Danielle Oder, who has built our digital media sequence. We have two courses where students were Adobe Photoshop, illustrator, and InDesign, and professor Oder has been a real leader in building out that sequence and managing it and teaching it. And so she brings deep expertise in more of the design side to our faculty. And she’s just one of many who I could mention who have sort of taken on different pieces of the program and really aid us in maintaining them.

Jessica Sa’d:

Wow, that’s amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much for giving us a little bit of insight on the rest of the communication faculty as well. I had one question come in, Dr. Dohrman, somebody was asking about the name of the non-profit you were speaking of earlier.

Faculty:

Let’s Get Started is a local nonprofit here in St. Louis, and it was started by a local entrepreneur. She is a leader in the St. Louis community in terms of this issue. And so she started this organization and has really built a wonderful series of resources to bring together a lot of different groups that are working on the issue of reducing recidivism, which is the rate at which people would return to prison. She is really a leader in our field, and it was a real honor to work with her last semester, but the name of the organization is Let’s Get Started.

Jessica Sa’d:

Thank you so much. That sounds like an amazing organization. It sounds amazing, especially what they’re trying to do and you know, the project that was incorporated with it. So, thank you for taking the time to answer that.

Faculty:

Absolutely. And one thing I think the client projects really do, is they encourage our students to think about the skills that they’re using as skills that can be certainly professionally beneficial in terms of the students’ own career. But it also gives students this feeling of empowerment to realize that, take any social issue that you really care about, refining these skills and really working to build ones feels and communication, give our students an extraordinary amount of empowerment and encouragement to help improve some part of the world. And many of our students, I find that they take a variety of different paths, both professionally, but also personally, it really encourages them to see themselves as leaders in the community. What can we as communication professionals do to help strengthen our organization, our local government nonprofits, our small businesses. There is so much potential for what our students can do once they have these skills and we want them to see that. And that’s one of the reasons we like to use a variety of clients in some of our classes.

Jessica Sa’d:

Yeah, that is fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing that. I saw the response that said that’s wonderful, when they got to learn a little bit more about the nonprofit, so thank you for sharing that as well. All right. Perfect. And so this another one that comes in, and this was a good question too. I do see quite often. How intense is the workload? You know, a lot of people are working professionals and they kind of want to know what the dedicated timeframe would be, at least from what you see Dr. Dohrman students committing to the program.

Faculty:

Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, we certainly, when students enter the program, we’re excited to welcome them into the Maryellen community and into our program community. And one of the things that I find is that the amount of the time commitment that students bring with them into the program, they’re certainly doing one of the classes. It will include a series of readings or watching videos, as well as a variety of different kinds of assignments that students would do each week to continue to move them through our courses. We’ve built the program to be both reasonable and also rigorous so that we give our students a wonderful experience.

Faculty:

We want our students to engage with one another, to engage with their professors, to engage with this material so that students are never just checking a box, but they’re also really growing and strengthening their skills. That is what we have designed this program to be and that is what I believe it is. And so certainly coming into the program it does require a time commitment, but we are certainly, I think, reasonable and how we built the program. And I find that students often share with me that they spent additional time talking with classmates or meeting with their professors.

Faculty:

One-on-one I often in every class that I teach, offer that to students. It’s not a requirement, ever, but I find the students often enjoyed the opportunity to just do some kind of career coaching, or even just brainstorming about where they’re at in their career and what kind of skills and opportunities might help them get to where they want to be. And there’s a lot of opportunity to participate in our community. And as well as with classes, obviously doing assignments and stuff is the minimum. I find a lot of our students really become part of our community and want to engage more. And we welcome both kinds of students to join the program.

Jessica Sa’d:

That’s so wonderful to hear. I’m happy to hear that students are motivated even beyond that, to go above and beyond. And I think that really speaks to the program as well. Thank you.

Jessica Sa’d:

All right. So, at this point, thank you to everyone who submitted a question and thank you, Dr. Dohrman for taking the time to speak with us. If anyone has any more questions that they think of later, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Also, if we did not get to your question today, an enrollment advisor will follow up with you. I do want to point out that we’re currently accepting applications. The next immediate classes do begin in May, but again, we have multiple search terms in a year, so it’s never too early to get started. So, feel free to begin working on the enrollment process, but thank you again for taking the time out of your day to join us. We hope that you found this webinar useful, and we look forward to speaking to you soon. Have a great day, everyone.

Faculty:

Thank you. Take care.