It all started at a Community College.
LaGuardia Community College
This was my entry point into postsecondary education. I arrived at LaGuardia to major in Liberal Arts Social Science and Humanities. My experience was overall positive. I still remember my advisement session when I told her I wanted to be a psychology major. “If you want do to that,“ she said, “you are going to have to do a Masters or a PhD.“ I didn’t know this would get stuck in my mind. Since then, I continued attending and setting my mind on graduate school.
Hunter College
After graduating from LaGuardia, I knew I needed to continue into psychology so I transferred to Hunter College. Their psychology program was as rigorous as I had heard and the classes at a four-year college seemed more challenging but my experience at LaGuardia helped me move along the way. I eventually graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in General Psychology.
Hunter College
I thought I was done after getting my Bachelors of Arts degree, but I was wrong. I wanted to continue and wasn’t sure which direction to go to. I got a full time job at LaGuardia Community’s Center for Teaching and Learning teaching students how to build their electronic portfolios. This experience exposed me to something I hadn’t yet realized about: higher education. So, two years after I graduated from Hunter, I decided to return and earn a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. The courses in this program challenged me to think more carefully about the learning experience in a college classroom. This certainly set my mind on wanting to explore more and more.
Teachers College
So here we are. Eleven years after I set foot at LaGuardia as a new student, I started my EdD in the Higher and Postsecondary Education program at Teachers College. My career interests have shifted since the time I graduated from Hunter. I still enjoyed Psychology as a field but I am more centered on learning more about higher education. This is also in part due to my growing experience working at LaGuardia Community College’s Center for Teaching and Learning. The different positions and initiatives I got to work with opened my eyes about this field and the courses I’ve taken thus far have confirmed I am on the right path.