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A 21st Century Edge

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Dr. Carol Leary President, Bay Path University

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Bay Path’s Dr. Carol Leary on revamping education for adult women

By Debbie Gardner

debbieg@thereminder.com

In 2004, when she was 49, Gail Golas of Easthampton, Massachusetts, decided it was time to convert the classes she’d been taking over the years into a degree.
        In 2014, Susan Armstrong, then 51 and dissatisfied with the direction of her work life, decided to invest in herself and pursue a career in cyber security.
        The common thread between them – both women chose to follow their dreams at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
        “Few people know that traditional students only represent 25 percent of all students on a campus,” said Bay Path President Dr. Carol Leary. “Whether seeking baccalaureate or graduate degrees, the largest percentage going through our higher education system [in the U. S.] are adults.”
        Over the past two decades, Leary has guided Bay Path in a direction designed to help women like Golas and Armstrong earn degrees. From initiating development of the innovative One-Day-A-Week Saturday College in 1999 to spearheading creation of the all-online American Women’s College in 2013, Leary has helped make Bay Path synonymous with education that fits the demands of adult women with busy lives.
        “When I talk to our faculty, they love these women. They come to class so prepared and so motivated. They want A’s,” Leary said. “These women do their homework at 1 a.m., at 5:30 p.m. if the kids are playing sports. They fit it around their families and their children’s lives.”
Putting a goal within reach
        Golas, who was a single mother of three when she started One Day A Week Saturday College, said the accelerated program made her personal goal possible.
        “I kept hearing so much about the one-day program,” Golas said. “I was working a full time job, a part-time job and had three teenagers at home. I figured it would take too long any other way and I wanted to get [the degree] done.”
        Including previous courses, Golas earned a liberal studies degree in two years.
        She was the kind of student Leary envisioned the Saturday program for.  When a survey of adult alumni indicated it took nearly 10 years to graduate, Leary hired a “brilliant” administrator, Dr. Vana Nespor, to create a compressed degree program for Bay Path.
        “She took the 14-week semester course and accelerated it into a six-week format.  She then said to students, ‘you probably, in six weeks, could [take] two courses because your time is more efficiently used’.” Leary said.
        The One Day A Week Saturday program stared with 80 enrollees. A high of 1,050 women have enrolled in the program at the Longmeadow campus and Bay Path’s three satellite sites in Massachusetts.
Charting a new career path
        Armstrong, who lives in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and works full time in information technology at Yankee Candle, said she learned about Bay Path’s Saturday college at its Women’s Leadership Conference a few years ago.  It intrigued her but, “I work all week long and I thought I couldn’t bring myself to get in the car and drive to Longmeadow every Saturday for four years,” she admitted.
        Last spring, a colleague brought back “a little purple card” about an online degree program from the 2014 conference. Armstrong immediately checked it out.
        “When I saw cyber forensics, that sounded so cool,” she said.
        When a chat box popped up, Armstrong said, “My first thought was that I didn’t want to chat. Then I decided, ‘Why not?’ The next thing I knew I was in Springfield signing up for a four-year college.”
        Armstrong epitomizes the student Leary and Bay Path were targeting with their American Women’s College.
        In early 2013, Leary said the term “disruptive education” – describing how the Internet changed students’ access to information – became the buzzword in higher education circles.
        “Knowledge was at their fingertips,” Leary said. “So we said, knowing the complexity of women’s lives, what can we do to enter a space where the woman does not have to attend, and receive her degree, on a college campus?”
        She gave a task force six weeks to “create the best learning environment for women online,” presenting the group’s proposal to the college’s Board of Trustees in June.
        The Trustees approved the proposal.  The American Women’s College launched in April 2014, following extensive research and advice from Dr. Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, renown for its online program.
        Leary said in the first two years, the online degree program has attracted approximately 350 women.
        Armstrong calls the program “fantastic.”  Her worries she wouldn’t be able to discipline herself to do the work dissipated quickly.
        “With Canvas – the software you use – you get everything,” Armstrong said. “The entire plan is there, the syllabus, you can get your grade, you have [access to] the teacher that you can reach out to, [other] students that you can reach out to by email… it’s 24/7 support.“
        The goal of Bay Path it to have its students succeed, Armstrong observed “You feel like you are the only one they care about at that moment,” she said. “There’s nothing about the online experience that makes you feel like I’m just out there doing this on my own.”
        Her goal at graduation – to “get into some field where I can make a real difference – whether it’s catching hackers or where I’m able to get the people doing horrible things online.”
        Both Golas and Armstrong are the first members of their families to earn a college degree. Leary said that through Bay Path’s two programs for adult women learners, she believes this will become a dream for more women – of all ages and incomes.
        “We are not a huge institution, but we are entrepreneurial. We put students in the center of learning [at Bay Path],” Leary said.