Georgia Magazine - September 2016 - 18

Support systems BY CAROLYN CRIST orretta Arrington, a Duluth resident who turned 51 in August, never thought she'd earn a college degree. She didn't need one with her background in logistics and operational management and 25 years of experience. However, when the recession hit and her employer's company was sold, she and her co-workers were left in a tailspin. She first pursued an associate degree in business from Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston and got a full-time position at the Dunwoody campus as a military student advocate. Then she heard about an online bachelor of business administration degree at the University of Georgia (UGA). Arrington attended a college fair and stopped at a table to get information about the UGA Terry College of Business. She couldn't drive to the Athens or Griffin campuses for onlocation classes but learned about the new, fully online program, which hosts classes on an interactive online portal. Students have the flexibility to work on their own time schedules each week to complete classes during the semester. "With a full-time job, a daughter in college and being married, I needed a full online platform to fit with my lifestyle," she says. "I never foresaw myself earning a four-year degree at a major university, and now here I am. "Schools are becoming techsavvy and understand that people have full-time lives, families and obligations. They're offering more opportunities for people to get into school and recognizing that this is the wave of the future, especially for millennials who want online access." Arrington enjoys watching online videos by her UGA professors that go along with reading materials and 18 class discussions. The students log onto the platform for live chats and receive transcripts of the chats to study. The class offers in-person options as well; Arrington met a classmate at the Mall of Georgia in Buford to complete a class project in July. "Taking a class online is great because you meet all kinds of people from different walks of life," she says. "Meeting with a classmate in person gives the program that 'college feel' for me." When Arrington dons red-andblack outfits in public, people often assume she's a big UGA football fan because she's not a traditional 20-something student. She loves watching their reactions when she explains that she's a student-and that seven of her family members are in college. Her husband is earning an online master's degree at the University of Oklahoma, and her mother, 74, is earning a criminal justice degree from West Georgia Technical College in LaGrange while living in Douglasville. "After I started my program, I told everybody to go to school," Arrington says. "If I can take classes, work and run a household, everybody else can, too." More online at www.georgiamagazine.org 'With a full-time job, a daughter in college and being married, I needed a full online platform to fit with my lifestyle.' -Lorretta Arrington COURTESY LORRETTA ARRINGTON L Southern Regional Education Board programs put higher education goals in reach Providing an online education Arrington's program is part of a bigger move nationwide by colleges and universities to offer more nontraditional classes to students who want a higher education degree. In Georgia, many online programs are run through the Electronic Campus, a gateway that features more than 30,000 courses and 2,000 degree programs at 300 colleges in 16 states. The gateway is run by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Atlanta that supports educational programs from early childhood through higher education in 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The SREB was created in 1948 by GEORGIA MAGAZINE http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - September 2016