Interview with Tzipora Katz
BFA – Digital Design
M.Ed. – Instructional Technology

It's Never too Late to Continue your Education

How did you decide to continue your education?

I'd been working as a technical trainer for several years with a specialty in web and graphic design. I have two children, and at one point, my daughter was saying that she didn't know if she wanted to get her Master's degree. I told her that you can't get very far without your Master's degree.

As she left the room, it occurred to me that I had taken off a semester in 1975, and never went back to school. I finished 3.5 years of my undergraduate program, but somehow life -- timing, finances, raising a family, got in the way.

I had looked at other schools along the way. I looked at online schools, and brick and mortar schools in New Jersey. No schools would honor my life experience; somehow it didn't count. I just resigned myself to preaching to my kids the value of a Master's degree, while never finishing college myself.

Then I received a piece of mail that advertised AIU Online, and decided to contact them. I didn't tell my family, but I started the application process and found out what the degree would entail. I'm a published author, and had been a professional trainer for years. No other university was honoring any of that experience; but AIU Online considered it.

Did you originally intend to earn a Bachelor's and a Master's degree?

Before I was in the program, I spoke to someone at a local community college about teaching for them. I was told that I needed a Bachelor's degree to do this. As I finished my BA, I contacted them to tell them that I was nearing my degree. Along the way, the rules in New Jersey had changed and I now needed a Master's degree to teach. Without hesitation, I started looking at Master's degree programs because I really wanted to teach.

I also liked other online universities, but it came down to 18 months versus 10 months at AIU Online. I decided to earn my Master's at AIU Online, and attend another university for the PhD.

I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Design and also earned my Masters of Education with a concentration in Instructional Technology.

How did AIU Online help you through your educational journey?

AIU Online really helped me to learn to learn. One of the great things was a tour of the AIU Online library; I wish I'd done it earlier. It's important and cuts down on so much time. There's so much information there, and you can get bogged down.

At AIU Online, I got the attitude that it's never too late to continue your education. I thought that being my late 40s, I would be the oldest student in my class, but I wasn't.

I don't think that I would be getting the depth of knowledge had I not attended AIU Online. Their virtual campus - which I still miss - is so wonderful. It has inspired me. I'm taking my graphics background and merging it with my educational knowledge to see what makes for successful online learning. I conduct my MA research project on this subject to see if there was anything to it, and there was, so I decided to run with it.

I turned in my final project and a week later I was attending another university beginning my PhD. program. I can attribute this to the support at AIU Online. They always encouraged me with "You can do it! You can get your doctorate degree." I received outstanding support from the faculty.

One of my instructors at AIU Online is local to me, and upon his recommendation I interviewed with a local college where I'm now teaching Web Development. I'm also teaching classes at an art institute, which wouldn't be possible without the M.Ed. after my name.

How has your life changed since completing your degrees?

In less than 2 years, I went from being a college dropout to a person with an advanced degree! I'm now working on my PhD program, which I will complete in the next year and a half.

As a result of my M.Ed, my daughter was inspired to get her own Master's degree and eventually her doctorate. One of my daughter's friends is getting her BA from AIU Online at my recommendation and I've recommended AIU Online to a numerous students that I work with at the community college.

As soon as I have my doctorate degree, my goal is to try to instruct for AIU Online. I've been in touch with my other instructors since graduation, just to let them know what I'm doing with the knowledge I gained. I hear back from every instructor that I write to. Once I made the determination that I was going to get my doctorate degree, everyone was so supportive and wonderful resources even post-graduation.

What is your career goal?

My ultimate goal is to instruct courses in education, specifically dealing with using technology to design better interfaces, and how to manage online courses. There's a world of difference between distance learning and face-to-face teaching. I'm very excited!

I returned to school to fulfill my desire for a dream, and I got hooked. It's never, never too late!

Back to Student/Alumni Profiles