Students and their success are IU Online’s primary focus, and this past semester, we’ve spent time listening to students’ stories. We were really interested in hearing why they chose IU Online, how it was going for them, and how they felt a degree from IU would help them reach their future goals.
Their stories inspired us. Many of you know that our students are special. Many juggle work, family, and other commitments while pursuing their studies. Their lives are busy, and education has to fit into all of the other goals they’ve set for themselves.
Nathan Carden, who’s pursuing a BS in Business Administration through IU South Bend, lives in Fort Wayne and works at Reelcraft Industries. Scott Cassidy, president of Reelcraft Industries, underscores the impact that IU Online has had on Nathan. “Since Nathan started going to IU Online,” he says, “he’s made the transition from a sales leader to a business executive. . . . Within a year, we promoted him to the executive team.” Nathan’s family is also seeing the benefits of his education. His wife is even thinking about going to IU Online to get a bachelor’s in medical imaging technology.
In Indianapolis, Jayla McCann is pursuing a Bachelor of Applied Science through IU Northwest. Like Nathan, she focuses on work and family in addition to her classes. At IU Online, she found support from her success coach Shohn Beeson, who helped her figure out how to manage her many responsibilities. In talking about Shohn’s support, Jayla says, “There’s someone there every step of the way who’s willing to take time out of their day to help you out.” Her work and dedication are contagious, it seems. According to her son, “She is the one who inspires me.”
Seeing IU Online’s positive contributions to students like Jayla and Nathan underscores the work we do as a university. Watch their stories and explore those of other students by going to the IU Online student stories webpage.
Our students aren’t just getting a great education while they work and parent. Some are contributing to the scholarship in their fields. Take, for instance, Chava Shawn and Carlos Garces, students in the BS in Mathematics program through IU East. Both of these students worked with faculty on research that will be published in upcoming journals.
Chava worked with faculty members Ramesh Karki and Young You to publish the paper “Recovery of an initial temperature of a one-dimensional body from finite time-observations” in the journal Mathematics in Applied Sciences and Engineering.
Working with Nayeong Kong, Carlos co-authored the paper “Derivation and Evaluation of Monte Carlo Estimators of the Scattering Equation using the Ward BRDF and Different Sample Allocation Strategy” for publication in the journal Mathematics and Statistics.
This contribution to scholarship is one aspect of IU Online that seems different from other large providers of online education. Our students have the opportunity to work alongside researchers who are not only great teachers, but who are also moving their disciplines forward in new areas—and helping students be part of that work.
Share good news about online program student highlights and work.