Archives for August 2020

My name is Douglas Delby and I reside in the western region of Virginia. I have lived here my entire 47 years of existence and have been married to my beautiful Wife for 27 years.

I am finally in my last semester at Penn State World Campus (Yippee…!) and hope to complete a BS OLEAD degree in December. My journey for higher education had quite a long delay since graduating high school in 1990. However, in 2015 I finally made the decision to use my G.I. Bill benefits before they expired.

For the past 26 years, I have worked for a global heavy truck manufacturing company and the OLEAD degree, along with teachings from this class, will definitely come in handy. My current assignment is leading our global robotics engineering team and my skills are being stretched to the max juggling six teams in five countries.

I wish each of you the best of luck while navigating the challenges along your education and occupation journeys. Most importantly, always try to prioritize time for family and friends.

Also, remember to occasionally re-evaluate your definition of happiness along your journey. It will probably change as you age and you need to be aware of the changes so you can adjust your plans of pursuit.

Have fun…!

Douglas

My name is Erica Monaghan and I’m in my second-to-last semester in my pursuit of a degree in Organizational Leadership.  After this semester, I’ll have two more courses to complete in the Spring.  I can’t tell you how exciting that is – to see the light at the end of the tunnel – because I left PSU when I was 20 years old with no degree, and now, almost 20 years later, I’m about to finish what I started long ago.  I’ve been working on completing my degree for three years while balancing a demanding full-time job and raising my two teenage girls alone.  If I could give one piece of advice to any of my younger classmates, DON’T QUIT!  Stick with it now because it is much harder to fit in later and you’ll feel the stigma of not having a degree in today’s society.  My dedication and hard work have influenced my kids as they both expect to put in the work to complete college after high school, and to my delight, my 15 year old is currently taking her third college class under a dual-enrollment program.  By the time she graduates high school, she’ll likely have one year of college under her belt.  On a side note, I live in the Lehigh Valley, I have a thing for horses and equestrian antiques, I thoroughly enjoy travel (when we don’t have a pandemic) and I love red wine!

I look forward to working with all of you this semester!

Best,
Erica

Hello everyone!

My name is Mike Lichman and I am an OLEAD major living in Reading, PA. I work as a senior facilitator for a large international bank, where I get to train all levels of the company from branch employees, call center employees, as well as executive level. Outside of work, I have an incredible wife, Jen, and a crazy dog named Morgan. In the few chances where I have time to myself, I enjoy reading, playing poker, and making music. 

I am looking forward to this course, as I have all of my OLEAD courses, primarily because I am incredibly interested and fascinated by leadership in all aspects. Some of my favorite books are about both good and bad leaders, I love to learn about what makes good leaders and see how I can implement it in my life bother personally and professionally. I can’t wait to work with all of you and hope you all have a healthy, safe, and productive semester! 

Hello! My name is Hollee Mize and I am and OLEAD major. I live in Houston, Texas with my seven year old daughter and (almost!) one year old Goldendoodle, Winston.  My interests are pretty much tied primarily to my daughter and my business, which I started five years ago.  I own an executive search firm which keeps me just as busy as my daughter does.  Honestly, there are days that I think I have two  (three, if you count the furry one!) children!

I am really looking forward to this course as it is directly applicable to what I do for a living and it also meets one of my degree requirements.  I hope to be able to use the information I learn as an aid to be a better business owner, leader, and better advisor to my clients.

I look forward to taking this class with you!

 

Greetings! I hope this day finds everyone well, the sun is out where I am this week, which is Chincoteague Island, VA. We have a home down here which is normally rented out but this week was open so I decided I could work out of here for the week. Typically, I live just 30 minutes away from University Park and would be on campus in my office, but since March have been working remotely as I am sure most of you might be also.

I am working towards my BA in OLEAD and after this semester hopefully will only have 7 classes left, I hope to graduate December 2021 but with two daughters also at Penn State, I am flexible if it means they can take an extra class. I am on my own time schedule and have the support of my supervisor and the Dean I work for so that takes a little pressure off the graduation timeline.

Spare time? What is that? With kids, work, and classes I don’t have much time to do anything for fun but when I do, you can either find me down here on the island or at camp at home. Interesting fact, I have a Cane Corso Mastiff who weighs in around 175 and thinks he is a lap dog. Hopefully, you can see Marius at the end of this blog. He was a rescue from a dog breeder who was not kind so handing him has been a challenge but also rewarding. At least I don’t worry too much about uninvited guests and more than once people have called the police to say there is a bear in my backyard. I guess if the lighting is great you could mistake his ears and body shape to be one.

Well, I am excited to take another course with Dr. Redmond and get to know and work with all of you. Best of luck, stay safe and healthy.

Thanks,

Tana

 

Hi everyone- after a 3 to 4 year break I am back to finish my BA in Organizational Leadership. Hopefully i can knock out the last 4 classes and graduate in the Spring of 2021 at the ripe age of 47. When I am not working, parenting, or husbanding , I love to fish fresh water and typically do it from a kayak or from the shore with my 11 year old son. Best of luck to everyone this semester and keep going strong!

Hi Class,

My name is Sam Kraus. I am an OLEAD major hoping to graduate in May 2021. I am originally from California, but I have lived in Barcelona, Spain for the last 6 years. I currently work in the SaaS industry in a client facing role. I returned to World Campus to finish my degree after a 5 year break. I’ve great experiences with classes. I also think coming back to my studies in my 30s allows me to have a different perspective.

In my free time I spend as much time outside in nature with my 3 dogs as possible.

Have a great semester everyone!

Hello Everyone,

My name is Michael S. Rodriguez and I am a World Campus Senior on track to graduate in Spring 2021. I am majoring in Law & Society with a minor in Criminal Justice and hope to attend law school after graduation. I am a veteran of the United States Air Force where I served in the active duty Security Forces (what the USAF calls military police). I still work in law enforcement for the state of Delaware, where I live with my wife of eleven years.

I am always looking to improve my understanding of leadership strategies and the through-process behind how to best utilize limited resources toward agency success. I have been in middle-management for the best part of the last fifteen years and I hope that courses like this will give me the tools necessary to move into more senior roles.

I will be looking forward to learning with you all and wish every the best of luck this semester, take care!

-Michael

Hi class and Dr. Redmond,

My name is Christine Conway but I go by Chrissie. I’m from the small town of Peckville Pennsylvania which is about 20 minutes North of Scranton (shout out to all ‘The Office’ fans).

This is my third straight semester at World Campus and I’m on schedule to complete my BS in Organizational Leadership by end of summer semester 2022. I’ve returned to college after a 26 year hiatus and and find it challenging but am happy to say that thus far, I’m doing exceptionally well.

I’m a single Mom to teenage daughters and on the rare occasion when I have free time, I enjoy reading suspense novels, movies, binge watching Netflix series, family activities and snuggling with two my cats.

I look forward to learning and working with all of you this semester.

Best,

Chrissie