{"id":4701,"date":"2016-06-27T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T16:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/?p=4701"},"modified":"2016-08-01T14:43:27","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T19:43:27","slug":"flexpath-graduate-emily-luciano-moves-career-forward-with-mba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/flexpath-graduate-emily-luciano-moves-career-forward-with-mba\/","title":{"rendered":"I Didn\u2019t Go Back\u2026I Found My Way Forward: Emily\u2019s FlexPath Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em>\u201cI didn&#8217;t go back because I thought I would have to stop working full time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Emily Luciano has a Bachelor\u2019s in Food Science and works for a large international retailer that specializes in food. In 2016, she earned her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.capella.edu\/online-degrees\/mba-business-administration\/\">MBA in Business Administration<\/a> through Capella University\u2019s self-paced learning format: \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.capella.edu\/flexpath\/\">FlexPath<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Luciano started her job right after graduating with her bachelor\u2019s. She knew she\u2019d want\u2014and need\u2014to get an MBA at some point, but she didn\u2019t think the time was right for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI didn\u2019t think I could work full time and go to school, plus<\/em><em> I still had loans from my bachelor\u2019s degree. I also thought that most people worked for two years before taking time off to pursue their master\u2019s, and I\u2019d only been at my job for two months.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Luciano heard about FlexPath at a special work event at her company; she was interested, but still concerned about the financial aspect. \u00a0However, her company was offering two full scholarships to employees, so she applied, not imagining she would be a recipient.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI got a phone call at work about three months after I applied, and someone said, \u2018Emily, are you sitting down? Well, you might want to for this phone call.\u2019 I got the scholarship! So that&#8217;s when I really felt, \u2018Wow, I can actually do this now.\u2019 The scholarship was exciting and started to open new doors.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4705 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/06\/Capella_Grade_02_0067-689x460.jpg\" alt=\"Capella_Grade_02_0067\" width=\"689\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/06\/Capella_Grade_02_0067-689x460.jpg 689w, https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/06\/Capella_Grade_02_0067-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/06\/Capella_Grade_02_0067-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 639px) 98vw, (max-width: 1199px) 64vw, 689px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But it wasn\u2019t only the scholarship that helped Luciano achieve her MBA; it was the FlexPath format itself.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe FlexPath format was wonderful. I don&#8217;t think I could have done my MBA without it. It allowed me the ultimate flexibility. I would wake up early some mornings to do coursework; I would study a lot after work; I could squeeze in assignments during lunch. My education was on my own schedule, and there&#8217;s really no way I could have gone back to school without that flexibility. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf I finished a class in 6 weeks or 8 weeks or 3 weeks, I could move right on to that next class. I wanted to finish in less than two years, and I ended up finishing in just a little over a year because of that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-embed widescreen\"><iframe width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0aTCpp9TozE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Luciano found the support system through FlexPath to be an integral part of her success.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe coaches helped answer any questions that you have about the program, about the classes, about funding\u2014anything. I used the tutors if I had any questions about an assignment. It was extremely helpful having a tutor there to guide me through the basics in the beginning, and then help me jump into those more advanced problems.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She found her coursework not only interesting, but relevant and valuable to her daily work life.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cEven though I&#8217;m a food scientist, I need to understand the business side of things if I want to move up in the company. At first, <\/em><em>I was scared to work full time and get my MBA, but I found that it\u00a0benefited\u00a0me in\u00a0both areas. I could take real-life work situations and apply them to assignments in my program, and I could take what I learned from my studies and apply it to our projects at work.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Luciano has already seen signs that her MBA is having a positive impact on her career.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI\u2019ve been able to use the knowledge I\u2019ve gained, especially pertaining to leadership. I&#8217;m still pretty young and new in the work field, but people in upper management have taken notice and are encouraging me in my development. <\/em><em>I want to be a leader, and I want to make a difference in the world. Getting my MBA has helped me get to that next level.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Interested in self-paced\u00a0learning<\/em>? <em>Learn more about<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.capella.edu\/flexpath\/\"><em>FlexPath<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h6>See graduation rates, median student debt, and other information at <a href=\"http:\/\/capellaresults.org\/outcomes.asp\">Capella Results<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMy education was on my own schedule, and there&#8217;s really no way I could have gone back to school without that flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":4713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73,151],"tags":[67,124,53,16],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4701"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4940,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701\/revisions\/4940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}