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Anteah Jones, Psychology and Criminal Justice

“This curriculum fits perfectly into my family's needs, both with its affordablity and flexibility.”

Many people think they don’t have the time to work on a degree.  But as Anteah Jones says, “there’s always time for education.”

Jones is pursuing her degree through UMass Lowell’s online continuing studies program.  Her husband’s Air Force career forces her family (which includes four young children) to move frequently, and in turn makes a traditional college experience a challenge.  While living in Oklahoma, she researched online options and found that UMass Lowell’s curriculum “fit perfectly into my family’s needs, both with its affordability and flexibility.”

Jones takes a full-time course load (“anything less than full-time and I start to lose motivation”) from her current home in Virginia.   Her computer is turned on around the clock so she can work on her classes whenever she has a free minute. “I’ll do homework at two o’clock the morning or in the middle of cooking dinner,” she says.

Even though she’s not learning in a conventional classroom, Jones praises the hands-on approach of her instructors.  “They have office hours, ‘virtual office hours’, and they are quick to respond on email. Some have even given out their personal cell phone numbers in case we need to call them.”  She praises UMass Lowell’s online program and insists it’s the only way she could work towards her degree.  “With young children and moving around the country so frequently, I really don’t think I could have gone back to school any other way.”

While all of her work has been done online, she was recently on campus for induction in to Psi Chi, the psychology honor society.  During that time, she got to meet some of her professors and classmates in person.  Next up, after getting her undergraduate degree, she would like to work on her master’s and Ph.D., both of which she is planning to do online.