Good morning! I’m sitting at work and thought I should share
a little bit about myself and how I got to grad school. I’ll keep it brief but
I feel like you should know who is writing; to an extent. I am from Norristown,
PA and attended WCU for undergrad. I was very involved on campus and acquired a
passion for the university. It was home. Although this is my first semester in
grad school, I am not fresh out of college. I took a year off between undergrad
and grad school to work at a wonderful program called City Year. City Year is a
group of 17-24 year olds who work with young people to help eliminate the
ridiculous dropout rate. 1 out of 4 9th graders will not graduate
high school. That statistic made me mad! I wanted to help. I do not believe
school is for everyone but I do believe that knowledge is power and high school
is a fundamental education resource and also an awesome experience that
students should complete. So I gave a year to service, changing the lives of
Philadelphia youth. Once my year of service was completed I decided to attend
graduate school for my master’s degree in secondary education counseling.
Some of you may wonder “why go back to WCU?” I seriously
considered multiple options because I wanted a new environment and new
experiences but when sat down and compared WCU to other institutions, the
others couldn’t compare. West Chester had numerous Graduate Assistantships
(I’ll talk about those later) and I did not see as many opportunities to
receive a FREE education at other schools. My program was CACREP accredited
which says a lot for the program and if I wanted I could use my WCU degree to
take me places and not be stuck in PA (not saying PA isn’t a wonderful place to
live but I did not want to limit myself when on the job hunt). Small class
sizes, quality education on a ‘college student budget’, close proximity to
various towns and cities and so much more. I loved the possibilities WCU
granted me and it came to the point that my want for experience at a new
institution did not trump the opportunities West Chester presented.
That is my story of how I am here in grad school at WCU. Why
are you at West Chester? And if you’re not, you should be! J
