education has always been an important
thing in my life I am the only member of
my family to get a bachelor's degree let
alone two masters I know that my family
is proud of me but I've never walked for
any ceremony so this will be my first
time in a row this would be my first
time with a tassel I think that this is
probably the first time in my life that
I could say that I'm proud of myself I
wanted to be a physical education
teacher when I first graduated from high
school went into physical education and
I had a couple of students with some
disabilities and they were the best part
of my day
I loved working with them so I was
within my first couple years of teaching
that I really found autism and began to
research it and study it and actually
left teaching to go into the autism
field moved all the way across the
country for a wonderful job opportunity
with kids with autism and I discovered
applied behavior analysis I was doing
managerial stuff I was training staff I
was writing behavior plans with the pay
and the title of an entry-level person
and one day I just came home and sat
down with my fiancee at the time it was
like hey if I'm gonna do this job I want
the education I want the certification
and I want to pay for it brandman offers
the special education degree with an
emphasis and applied behavior analysis
entering this program with brandman I've
expanded my knowledge tenfold every day
that I logged on to the computer I was
going to learn something new I feel like
you know after two years I'm leaving
with the knowledge necessary to be able
to sit and pass my boards and I'm
thankful for brandman for the
opportunity and the knowledge that I've
gained
feeling kind of nervous I know that this
marks the end of a big journey
I'm excited nervous but excited you know
there's over 500 people here ready to
graduate with their friends and family
my first Masters I chose to go to the
brick-and-mortar so going to an online
program I didn't have any expectations
but to compare the two professors are
more open may have more availability
they send emails text shoot me a text if
you're having problems with stuff I was
able to learn better from them them
online community really is what kept me
going you know we have little discussion
boards and little chat rooms where we
can log in and ask our peers questions
and study together so I just felt that
the community the flexibility really
helped me get through this degree I know
the hard work and the dedication and the
time that I've put into this and I'm
proud of that
it's over it's done all my hard work
countless hours sleepless nights meant I'm
gonna be a graduate of Brandman
University and it's really exciting you
know I'm going into the work field I'm
gonna be able to sit from my boards
become behavior analyst and this marks
the the end of one journey in the
beginning of another
