When I looked down and saw what you see at the bottom of the right hand column, my first reaction was to squeal with absolute delight! But I controlled myself since I was at the airport and there were many people around me. I just squealed with delight inside myself.
My second reaction was, "No way!"
But it's really and truly there! BYUI is now offering a B.A. in English totally online degree!
Woohoo!
I'd looked at English degrees around our area, but it would be hard to transfer credits, it would take a long time (since I only go part-time) and I really like going to BYUI. And with our past history of moving every 5ish years, I would probably not be around here long enough to actually finish (although we hope we're here for a long, long time, but I've learned to not plan out longer than 5ish years), which would mean transferring credits to another university. So not the plan I'd like to follow.
I decided to continue at BYUI because getting that Bachelors Degree is the main goal, and if I decide to go on for a Masters Degree in English, I totally understand I'd have to make-up the English classes I hadn't taken with my degree. And I was fine with that.
But...hello!!! An online English degree. At BYUI. Totally online.
I was all smiles as I boarded that plane.
I talked with my advisor Tuesday and it will totally work for me! It will probably take 2-3 more semesters, depending on how many classes I take each semester, but that's A-okay with me. And since BYUI has three complete semesters every year, that's only one more year. Tops.
But the story gets even better.
A few months ago I was browsing the BYUI website (John must've been out of town because that seems to be when I do most of my browsing), and happened to find their list of faculty openings. They are forecasting the need for many online English teachers in the next few years. Then I saw what they pay their online teachers per credit hour and I thought, "I would totally love to do that! I could teach, be online anywhere, visit grandkids (and their parents, of course), travel with John, and still make some pretty decent money." I liked that idea. A lot. I love to teach, I have a lot of experience with BYUI online, and I could "teach" from anywhere. Sounds pretty perfect.
I even found a totally online Masters in English Degree while browsing online one night (yep, John was out of town again); it's offered through Northern Arizona University (a bit ironic), and they only charge 1.5 times the residency rate. That, in itself, my friends, is a small miracle. Our local universities charge more than that for their residency rate for graduate programs, and other online Masters programs charge three times that rate. That's way too expensive for me.
So, when I was talking to my advisor I told her that one of my dream of dreams would be to teach online English for BYUI. She said, "Oh! That doesn't have to just be a dream, you would be perfect for that! You've been through our program and that would definitely give you an advantage!"
Again. Total excitement!
I immediately called my sister, who teaches Enligh at BYUI, and told her the fabulous news. She was very excited for me!
I called John, who was in Las Vegas, and he got an earful - a very happy earful - and he was excited for me too.
And this is another best part, because this story has many best parts for me.
I won't have to take Anatomy & Physiology to finish my Exercise Science cluster because I won't need a cluster anymore! Woohoo! That class was totally scaring me to death. I was going to take a Biology class before I took Anat/Phys, since I really haven't had Biology since about the 9th grade and they "strongly" recommend that students take Biology before Anat/Phys, so that was going to be eight credits of pretty much pure pain and torture. And I'm not exaggerating one bit.
I would so rather take 20 credits, or whatever it takes, of English classes.
I was floating a bit the rest of the week. I'd experienced tender mercies galore.
It looks like, if things go as planned, we'll have two graduations to go to in the Spring of 2015. Kailen will graduate from high school and I'll graduate from college.
We think we'll throw one huge joint graduation party.
It will be awesome!
Would you like to come?
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