Last fall, I embarked on a sociology master’s program in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. As someone who spends most of his working hours facilitating student-faculty interactions as a webinar specialist at SPS, it was a bit jarring to find myself firmly back in the student role. Armed with a renewed enthusiasm for higher education, and a much-better-than-average knowledge of Canvas, I set out to complete the two-year program, all while maintaining my full-time role at SPS. The program was sometimes grueling, and as anyone who has completed a degree while working will tell you, it takes a special kind of alchemy (viz., foolhardy optimism about the inherent value of education and many caffeinated beverages) to exert the extra energy required to complete assignments before or after working hours. In May of this year, I completed the program requirements and finally graduated with my degree.
This wouldn’t have been possible, of course, without the support and flexibility of my team here at SPS. My supervisor was accommodating in helping me to arrange my schedule around classes, and my colleagues helped to pick up the extra slack when I had to run to campus for last minute meetings, rescheduled classes, or to retrieve a critical, if temporarily mislaid, textbook. One of the great things about working at an organization that facilitates the propagation of higher education is that there’s no need to justify one’s own desire for educational advancement. An understanding of the import of further education is baked into the DNA of SPS and organizations like it.
