Long Road Back to School

After completing student teaching graduating from the University of Akron in December 2008 with a degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from the College of Education, I decided that teaching was not for me.  My second career choice was journalism, so I decided that I should pursue this instead.  I briefly thought about being a paralegal as well, but thought that being a journalist would be more fun.  I took four news journalism courses at the UA, so I put my resume in with several local newspapers.  The Portage Lakes Suburbanite, which mostly employees free lance writers (who write articles on the side of their main job) hired me in February.  I continued to work at Acme, but I wanted to get an additional job so I could save some money for college, instead of having to take out a $20,000 loan. 

A friend of mine from Barberton High School attended the Ohio Center for Broadcasting (OCB) and landed himself a job as a producer for a morning radio show.  I thought this 38 week, hands-on program would be good for me, so I visited their school in Independence (Cuyahoga County) for a tour.  Back to the job search.  I looked at ads in the newspaper and saw a listing for the US Census Bureau in June 2009.  I contacted them and in the fall, I took an exam to be a enumerator.  I was hired by the Census Bureau in April 2010 and worked for them for six weeks.  It was a good job, as the weather was good for walking door to door and it paid $13.25 an hour, nearly $4 more an hour than I make at Acme.  However, once that job was over in June, I realized that working two jobs was difficult when it came to both jobs wanting me to work the same hours.  It was too late to apply for financial ad for the 2010-11 school year, so I figured I would wait until next year.

In February, I filled out my financial ad forms online and submitted them upon the completion of my tax forms in March.  In early April, I called the OCB and was told I could only receive $9,000 of $15,000 needed for my student loan because I already had a degree and it wasn't a state school.  I decided at this point to apply to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent St.  It is one of three nationally accredited school for journalism in Ohio, along with Bowling Green and Ohio U.  I was admitted a few weeks later and made an appointment to see an advisor in May.  The advisor told me I had two options, either obtain a second bachelor's degree or a master's degree.  I decided it would be better to get a master's degree, but it required passing the GRE (Graduate Review Exam).  I bought a book and studied, but it proved to be very difficult, so I decided in July to pursue the bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism.  I have experience already in the newspaper business, so I would now like to puruse broadcasting for TV and radio.  After signing up for courses and updating financial ad forms, I am now ready to go back to school. 

I will be taking two classes to ease myself back into the academic world.  I haven't taken an classes in 3.5 years since I started my student teaching in early 2008.  On Tuesday and Thursday, I will take Intro to Mass Communcation and Argumentative Prose Writing for six credit hours.  I will work at Acme about 30 hours a week and may add a third class to my semester's schedule next year.  After completing an internship, I plan to graduate in 2014.

Week of Paid Vacation: July 24 to 30

My second of three weeks of paid vacation from Acme this year was the week of July 24 to 30.  This is a summary of how my week went.

On Sunday, Scott and I went to Malabar Farm near Mansfield, OH in Richland County.  We took a tour of Louis Bromfield's (Pulitzer Prize winner) home and farm.  Bromfield was an earlier promoter of preserving the environment before it took on greater attention in the 1970s.  On Monday, I took care of some financial aid information with Kent St. so I could sign up for fall classes (a blog about that will come later) was a slow day.  On Tuesday, Adam and I went to Charger Lanes for bowling and I did some touch up painting in my upstairs room.  On Wednesday, Scott and I went to the Summit County Fair, and I later went on a tour of the Hower House near the UA.  On Thursday, Mom and I spent some time together.  On Friday, Scott and I went to the Western Reserve Historical Society.  There were three parts to this facility, the Crawford Car Museum, the history museum (featuring an Abraham Lincoln and Civil War exhibit), and research library.  On Saturday, Dad and I went to Marion to visit the family.  Most of the family had lunch at Bob Evans and went to Cousin Ginny's (Dad's 1st cousin, daughter of Grandma Webster's sister, Great-Aunt Ruby) house to look at old photos and discuss geneology with Aunt Theresa and Great-Aunt Helen.  Ginny gave me several interesting papers and when I got home, I used them to update my information.