Online education offers the freedom necessary to excel

Sometimes an online program is the perfect match for those whose busy schedules interfere with traditional education.

Dana Riley is one of the students, an SJVC Online student from Kentucky. For years, she worked in a nursing home, but the unpredictable hours and her young children kept her tired and hardly in a position to go back to school.

Ultimately, SJVC’s Online Clinical Medical Assisting program was exactly what she needed. Tekla Patton was her student advisor, but their conversations were shorter and less frequent than with other students.

“She didn’t need a lot of help,” Tekla says. “She was very independent. She could do a lot of things on her own.”

“I had time to sit down and study,” says Dana. “I could do things at my own pace.”

Dana points to the online program’s flexibility as one of the greatest causes of her success. Traditional education would not have given her the time to properly care for her children and work a job at the same time.

“I started and stopped because of the kids,” Dana says. “But because it was online, I could take a break, help the kids with homework, then go back to my studies.”

As any parent knows, looking after kids can be both exhausting and time-consuming. With the online program, Dana could set aside her schooling for her family, to return to it later when she had free time.

Despite all the distractions and prior commitments, Dana performed admirably.

“She only had one ‘B’,” says Tekla. “So she made Dean’s List every time.”

The Dean’s list is a special honor reserved for students who manage to keep their grade point average at 3.25 or above. Needless to say, Dana achieved the distinction in every module she was in, despite her kids at home and her job.

“Caring for her children while pulling that GPA is a great accomplishment,” says Tekla.

Better yet, it was not long after graduation that Dana found a new job working at a General Practitioner’s office.

“The work schedule is a lot better,” Dana says.

Now she has much more time to be with her kids.

“I feel very accomplished.”