Introduction

Hello all – my name is David and I live in north-central, Nebraska – so, the Central time zone. I am married and have five children (four already grown-up – one in college, one with a Bachelor’s degree, and one with a Master’s Degree). I am a 53 year-old non-traditional student and have been pursuing a BS in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing forever – well really about eleven years, mostly one or two classes at a time (although three this semester and last). I currently have about 120 credits (almost all earned via online courses), and this is my sixth semester at PSC. After this course, four more classes and I am done (with this degree anyway) – scheduled for graduation in December.

I selected PSC as it offered reasonably priced online courses, from a traditional college (as opposed to online only institutions). I believe PSC being a traditional college adds credibility to my education/degree. I transferred my previous credits from a non-traditional college to PSC, as it seemed like a better source for a degree, even though I am having to take additional courses since some of my credits were not accepted by PSC (that’s why I’ll end up with about 135 credits when I am done). Prior to finding PSC, I tried to transfer credits to other Nebraska universities, but was not happy with how they handled my start-up information – as they were impersonal and kept communicating with me as if I was a 18 year-old starting college. Therefore, I looked further and found PSC, and was pleasantly surprised and impressed by my firsts contacts with the individuals involved in my initial evaluation and advisement (very nice/personal).

I have worked for many years in business and marketing management and have done well. For about ten years, I was vice president of marketing for a large medical device company, and every member of my 27-person department had at least a Bachelor’s degree, including many with Master or PhD level degrees – except me. I was able to achieve this level of management by starting in sales and working hard, slowly gaining a lot of industry knowledge and experience – and I was very blessed. Embarrassed about not completing my formal education, I kept that aspect of my life from my better-educated staff. However, I have always wanted to keep learning and finish my own degree – so here I am.

Other than school and work, I am usually involved with some type of church service activity, typically working with teenagers at least one night a week, plus Sundays. I am currently involved in community economic development and work with many businesses on improving their marketing, customer relations, and overall business management skills. I am expecting that this E-Marketing course will add to my previous business/marketing coursework knowledge, and be applicable to real world business marketing situations.

David