Stories

Cara Gardner MS in Communications and Information Management

David McCurry G'08 MS in Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy

After searching for nearly three years for a formalized education pertinent to the nonprofit sector, I found Bay Path College’s Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy (NMP) Program to complement my career experience. Bay Path provided everything I sought in an online, nonprofit graduate program—courses relevant to fundraising as well as my current position as senior director of development at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA.

Evan Stuart G'09 Master of Occupational Therapy After completing my bachelor’s degree in psychology, I worked in a variety of behavioral and medical fields while I contemplated graduate school. As a job coach working with developmentally disabled and physically challenged adults and teens, I saw firsthand the impact occupational therapists have on individuals with physical and mental impairments, and I was intrigued. I explored Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) programs and the options available to me, and I found Bay Path College. The accelerated program and small class sizes appealed to me, but it was my visits to Bay Path and my interactions with faculty, staff, and students that led me to apply and enroll in the MOT program.

From the moment I stepped on campus, I had a feeling that I would be learning with family instead of fellow students, and this sentiment became a reality. We supported each other in our educational endeavors, and we were encouraged on a regular basis by MOT faculty, who are amazing people with interesting and vibrant personalities. They engage you in lectures and discussions, and guide you in achieving your goals. They also motivated me to pursue leadership opportunities within the Student Occupational Therapy Association, where I served as president and oversaw such activities as wellness fairs, backpack awareness, and Bay Path’s annual OT conference. The MOT professors have been the highlight of my Bay Path experience, and never in my college career have I had professors as committed to my success as I had at Bay Path.

Nepko Brown G'08 MS in Communications and Information Management

Nekpo Brown G’08 is so passionate about education that she has made it her mission to bring educational resources to people across the globe. Nepko received her MS in Communications and Information Management degree and currently works as a business engineer in project management at MassMutual, where she has spent the last six years in varying positions. In addition to her 9-5 workload, Brown has established an educational initiative called The Joshua Generation Program, which provides training to schools in post-civil war Liberia. Brown, whose parents emigrated from Liberia to the United States before she was born, has first-hand knowledge of how the 14-year civil war affected the nation’s educational system. “The government doesn’t have the fund to provide free public schooling,” Brown says. “So students have to pay.” The war did more than decimate the government’s educational funds; it caused an 80 percent unemployment rate and prevented an entire generation of Liberians from attending school. “You have people that are high school or college age and they are at a grade school level in their education.” These facts, in addition to the many wonderful opportunities Brown herself was given throughout her schooling at Bay Path, have prompted her to work for improvements in the Liberian school system.

Brown’s Joshua Generation Program is in its early phases. Right now she’s seeking funding through grants, and has partnered with Teachers Without Borders, which has begun a teacher training program in one Liberian school under Brown’s direction. “The ultimate goal is to have an academic development program that is growing,” Brown says. “Right now we are assessing the needs for schools, but before you can get to a level where you are providing skilled teachers, you need basic supplies.” Brown notes that many of the schools in Liberia are using books from the late ‘70s. So last year she organized a book donation drive. She’s collected about 2500 books, most of which she has catalogued and is organizing to send over.

Brown hopes the Joshua Generation Program will one day train many Liberian educators, providing skills and resources for them so they are not dependent on basic needs and can spend their time actually teaching the next generation of post-war children. She says it’s important that Liberian teachers lead the way in training each other and developing their own schools. “It’s about knowledge sharing; they know what works in their community and their environment. My work is to provide the tools to develop it.”

As a Bay Path graduate, Brown says she has received a tremendous amount of encouragement from her own educators. “I am not doing this alone! Everyone at Bay Path, from my professors to the President and the Provost, has provided support and great networks for me.”

Brown’s educational initiative does not have a website yet. But she is working hard to secure enough funding to complete the teacher-training programs and establish a permanent presence online.

Valerie Thompson, G'10 MS in Higher Education Administration

In my search for the perfect graduate program I found Bay Path College’s Master of Science in Higher Education Administration (HEA). It was the most feasible program for me—online, affordable and flexible. With the acceptance of several transfer credits, the program took only a year and a half for me to complete. Throughout my professional life I have always taken action to advance my career, and the HEA was the next reasonable step.

The online program was comfortable, the discussion process with classmates and faculty was remarkably smooth, and their feedback was incredible. The HEA faculty are extremely knowledgeable and helpful, and they bring strong experiences in higher education to each and every one of their classes. The classes have enhanced my skills in leadership, economics, and management.

For more than a decade, I worked in a higher education institution teaching community programs as well as courses in nutrition. To build my knowledge in financial management, I shifted careers and focused on my accounting skills. I just recently returned to a higher education setting—Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, NH, where I manage grant funds for the institution’s ‘Let No Woman Be Overlooked’ Breast and Cervical Cancer Program, which provides free breast and cervical cancer screenings to New Hampshire women who meet certain requirements. In my current role, I can apply my past experiences as well as related the knowledge I gained from the HEA graduate program in order to grow in my career.