Colorado Tech Online Students and Alumni
Meet Candice Hull
BSBA with a concentration in Information Technology
MSM with a concentration in Information Technology Management
Never Afraid to Set Big Goals
Being a single mother with a demanding full-time job almost kept Candice Hull from pursuing her Bachelor's degree. "I didn't think there was enough time in the day for it all," she says. But then her can-do attitude, as well as learning about online degree programs, made her reconsider.
Candice not only earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Technology, but also graduated Summa Cum Laude. She then immediately went on to earn her Master's degree. Candice graduated with her Master of Science in Management degree with a concentration in Information Technology Management.
The first in her family to receive any college degree, Candice earned both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Colorado Technical University. Candice says. "I make big goals and I achieve them. I'm a single mom who has managed to make her own home, is successful at a big company, has started her own business and managed to earn Bachelor's and Master's degrees. I'm proud I was able to achieve so much on my own."
Candice is the first to admit that earning her degrees would have been almost impossible to achieve without the availability of online education. "Without the option of online learning, it would have taken me six years to get my Bachelor's degree," she says. "With as much work as I was doing, as well as running my own business and raising my daughter, I don't think I would even have had the time." Candice also thinks she would have had the patience.
Candice got her Associate's degree, before daughter Alexis was born, at a brick and mortar school and calls the experience "drudgery." "Online classes aren't drudgery at all though," Candice says. "At Colorado Tech Online, classes were accelerated and, within that accelerated timeframe, self-paced. CTU would give me all the tasks I had to do in a term ahead of time. At the beginning of each course, I would know what I had to do for the whole course and when I would have to do it by."
"Getting my Associate's degree at the brick and mortar school, I was sitting in class listening to a teacher cater to the lowest common denominator. To me, it felt like a huge waste of time. CTU is the exact opposite."
Candice didn't jump into online education blindly. "I was worried about the validity of the degree and what other people would think. I was worried that I wouldn't be getting a real education," she says. "But I realized the education was as real as it gets during my very first course. It was as challenging as any class I had ever taken with an instructor standing in front of me." In addition to the traditional classes Candice took for her Associate's degree, she had also taken a few classes towards her Bachelor's degree at a Colorado Technical University (CTU) brick and mortar campus before realizing she just didn't have the time to either commute to the school or sit in class.
Candice picked Colorado Tech Online because she had enjoyed the curriculum, instructors and resources the physical CTU campus she had attended offered. She hoped to find similar curriculum, instructors and resources through Colorado Tech Online.
While a Master's degree opens innumerable doors, Candice didn't wait until she had one to put her CTU education to work. Shortly after graduating with her Bachelor's degree, Candice was promoted to a Lead Engineer at Boeing and founded her own telecommunications business, Real Time Networks.
Candice says going on to get her Master's degree was not part of her original plan. In fact, it wasn't until she was near the end of her Bachelor's degree program that she decided to go for it. "Reflecting back on my time at Colorado Tech Online in the Bachelor's degree program, I realized it hadn't been as bad to fit into my life as I had initially thought it would be. I was extremely happy with the school and with the education I had gotten so I thought I might as well keep on trucking."
Candice kept on trucking all right, not allowing herself so much as a few weeks off in between programs. "I was afraid that if I quit for even a month I would put a whole lot of other priorities above school," she says.
Now that she has her Master's degree, Candice is busy expanding Real Time Networks to the next level. No longer needing to study for hours each day, Candice has also upped her volunteer activities in her community. She volunteers as a diver at Denver Aquarium, spending at least two days a week doing everything from helping with birthday parties to feeding animals and cleaning tanks … all while underwater!
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