Colorado Tech Online Students and Alumni
Meet Richard Szabo
BSBA with a concentration in Information Technology
MSM with a concentration in Information Systems Security
Dreams Do Come True
Talk about a complete turnaround. Richard Szabo had an Associate's degree from a community college and a job as a Telecom Administrator with no promotion potential. Then he enrolled in Colorado Tech Online's BSBA in Information Technology program. Before Richard even graduated, he had already landed himself a new job…as vice president of a major northeastern bank's Information Technology department.
"I decided to dedicate 15 months to going to school, and it opened doors I never thought would be there for me. It seems like only yesterday I had a worthless degree and a dead-end job; and now I've finished my Bachelor's, have started on my MBA and I'm a bank vice president. It blows my mind. It blows my wife's mind. I can't tell you how happy I am."
Building Lasting Relationships
But when he went looking for a degree program, Richard knew not just any one would do. Living in rural Maine, brick-and-mortar programs were pretty much out. "With a busy life that includes a wife and son, traveling for 60 to 90 minutes wasn't an option." He had heard about online schools and started looking at the ones offering the degree he wanted. "From the first contact, Colorado Tech Online was the school that made me feel the most comfortable, and its curriculum seemed to make the most sense while being practicable to the real world." To this day, Richard still talks with his Colorado Tech Online Admissions Advisor. "She and I hit it off immediately. We've become really good buddies."
Richard also became friends with many of his fellow students. "I'll just come out and say it: some of these classes are brutal to take online. But, when you team up with others, it gets easier." While taking Statistics, Richard and classmate Lori Noda spent hours a night on the phone together, working through problem sets and helping each other understand difficult concepts. "Lori is in Pasadena, California, and I'm here in Maine, but that made no difference."
When Richard's family was vacationing in Las Vegas last fall, they made a side trip to Pasadena to meet Lori and her family. Not surprisingly, everyone got along in real life as well as they did online. Now the two families are planning a week-long get together.
Applying Learning On-the-Job
While new friends are certainly a nice part of his time at Colorado Tech Online, Richard knows he's here for the education. "I'm already using so much of the stuff that I've learned in class. One of the things that attracted me to Colorado Tech Online was that it wasn't just a technical degree. It is a business degree. When I started, I had no clue about finance or how organizations are built and run. That was so far out of the realm of anything I was interested in and now, in my new job, all of that stuff applies every day."
"I skipped a lot of levels when I took this new job and I didn't know if I could handle it. But thanks to everything I've learned at Colorado Tech Online, I'm doing just fine. I was able to jump right in. My future is wide open."
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