My name is Mary Witaszek.
I'm 25 years old, and I've always kind of known
that I wanted to do music.
My mom is a music teacher, so that's
kind of how I knew. I missed learning,
so I found a program that fit for me,
and that's why I'm here.
The fact that this program was online
was definitely like the biggest reason
I chose the program because I did not
want to take off time teaching. I like teaching too much.
And so that's why I chose UF was because it
was completely online.
And it was a great school.
And so I just kind of hoped and prayed that I got in
and I did.
And I do feel that being part of this program
has allowed me to make connections with colleagues
that I didn't have before.
So I think that's a great opportunity and a great part
of this program.
I was definitely able to apply the curriculum in the classroom
because there were definitely classes,
there were a number of classes, where I took
the material from the class as
I was learning it and actually applied it to my classroom
as I was learning it myself, and the students of mine
were getting the information from what I was learning.
And I just I definitely saw a big difference
in how I was teaching and what I was doing,
and they saw a big difference.
And so I would definitely say that it
applies. My fellow students
and I got to know each other on a collaborative level.
During our program, we would use discussion posts,
we would video chat, video posts, all this stuff.
And then we actually created a Facebook group outside
of the program,
so that we could get to know each other a little bit more.
And so we definitely have formed lifelong connections
through this program.
And I think that's a great part of this program.
For the faculty,
I actually definitely remember Dr. Bazan and Dr. Edmonds.
They were both my capstone advisors and were 100% with me
the whole way. They worked with me.
They helped me the whole way.
And I just truly appreciated all the advice that they gave me.
The most challenging part of earning this degree
was the fact that we were doing it online
as we worked full time, trying to budget that time
and trying to get that to work was definitely
the most difficult part.
Somebody looking into this program,
I would advise to them to definitely learn to budget time
and to become responsible for your own learning, which
I think, is really what the master's degree
is all about anyway.
And so I think that this program being online
is a great push in order to do that.
So that would be my advice.