roaD Warrior: beverly blanD (Mba ‘03) It’s Monday morning and Beverly Bland (MBA ‘03) is on the road again. 50 weeks each year this Arkansas grandmother wakes in a new city for her job with The Audit Group where she reviews the finances of large health systems across the country. Every few months Bland’s commute to work is different. Every few months her colleagues and customers change. The one constant in her life is the love of her family and a drive to succeed. Both brought her to Webster. “ I went back to school because I was about to be a grandma,” Bland reveals. “Each generation should raise the bar for the next. I wanted to be able to say to my grandchild ‘Do better than me.’” So Bland decided to go back to school to influence her family’s next generation and motivate her own daughter to return for a MBA. Because she’s a woman whose lifestyle of continual travel is as different as her job locations each month, Bland needed an institution that could match her unique situation. She needed the Walker School of Business. “ I picked Webster because I wanted a valid, solid degree from an established institution. Webster had a brick and mortar building, so I had more confidence that I was enrolling in an accredited school.” With the Walker School’s help Bland combined online classes with travel for her job all those weeks. Regardless of the city, Bland could go to class, order books online and even have them delivered wherever in the world she found herself. Instructors were available when she had questions, and online classroom chats with other students opened up more understanding about each subject. Bland could set her own schedule so going to school never interfered with her work. In fact, it enhanced it. “ Through my job, I cultivated strong working relationships with all my clients, ensuring repeat business,” says Bland. “Earning my degree has made me more positive and self- assured. My Webster education helped me enhance my confidence.” Taking one class per semester of graduate work, Bland literally earned her degree on the road, set a new high educational example for her family, injected herself with self-assurance and graduated with a 3.92 GPA. Now that’s a great road trip!
The Walker School of Business provides 115 distinct online courses supporting eight graduate programs and five certificates for our students on the go. For a complete list of everything from Accounting Theory to Web Development Technologies visit www.webster.edu/notabene 2012 for more information.
9