I’m a College Graduate!

I finally completed the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree that I started way back in the 1980s. I enrolled at the Park University Austin Campus, then at Bergstrom AFB, when I was serving in the Texas Army National Guard. In fact, I found out about Park (then called Park College) through the military. Over the years, Bergstrom AFB was closed and the new Austin-Bergstrom International Airport opened on the site. The local Park campus has relocated multiple times. The main campus, of course, is where it has always been in Missouri. One day I would like to see it in person.

Before dropping out of high school, I had taken the ACT (32 out of 34 composite if I recall correctly). I had also already obtained my GED, so I had everything I needed to enroll. I never planned to spend as long as I did completing my degree, but life intervened, as it usually does. That’s especially true when you’re an unconventional student. Along the way I took many CLEP tests, and some courses at the local community college in addition to my night courses at the local Park Campus. I even took Calculus by correspondence course from UT. Internet classes made things a lot easier in the later years, of course, but I still ended up taking classes in fits and starts, often with lengthy gaps between those periods. But I never gave up on finishing it, which shows that eventually if you keep taking them, you will have enough classes to graduate.

Below are my storified tweets on my reaction and my thanks to Park for their military and veteran friendly policies that allowed me to finally accomplish this goal!