Freda Barkley

Freda Barkley found herself looking to increase her pay, her benefits and her overall quality of life.

She looked – and found herself on that cusp of making a decision that would change her life forever.

 

Gateway offered
options, flexibility
Looking brought Barkley to Gateway Technical College . She believed its programs were the answer to a career change – the college offers more than 65 career options, with affordable tuition and flexible class scheduling, a good fit for the married mother of four.

The next step was deciding whether she was ready for that change. Her decision has become the foundation for advice she gives others: If you wait until you’re “ready” for college, you’ll never go.

Seize the opportunity now, she says, because school is a part of life and not something that happens while life is put on hold.

“The first thing that everyone says is ‘I’m going to go back when I’m ready,’” says Barkley. “You are never ready. The money is never going to be right. The day care will never work out. You will never be ready – you just have to do it.”

And Barkley, indeed, did do it. Through persistence and the guidance of her instructors, Gateway’s Multicultural Program and her family, Barkley earned an accounting degree and is now employed in her chosen career field for a Milwaukee non-profit group.

Hands-on training
prepared Barkley well
Barkley said hands-on training through experienced Gateway instructors prepared her and her classmates for the skills they would need once they entered their career field.

She said that was the thing that amazed her most – finally landing that job and knowing that she had the skills to do it well, from the first day.

“The way Gateway prepared me is exactly how I’m doing it now,” says Barkley. “It’s the same formulas, the same everything. I do it at my new job exactly how I did it at Gateway.

“It’s not the time you had in college, it’s how you bring everything to the table, and Gateway helped prepare me for that.”

Diversity experience
helps in college, workplace
Barkley also says she benefited from Gateway’s diverse student population. It’s an experience that helps her every day in her career.

“Really, Gateway’s multicultural classes might be the ones that best prepared me,” says Barkley. “They helped me to deal with people of other cultures and races.

“These classes help you to see that we are all people. We all have the same issues. I now know how to approach people on different topics and issues not out of ignorance, but out of knowing how to approach people – the classes at Gateway help you to see people for who they are.”

Affordability
Finally, Barkley says she was amazed by the affordability of Gateway. She graduated with an associate’s degree and will finish her bachelor’s degree at Carthage College through a transfer agreement between the two colleges.

Barkley says she will pay the same amount for her entire bachelor’s degree as a full-time student at Carthage would pay for their first full year, if they lived on campus.

“You still have bills to keep up with, so knowing that it will be affordable helps you to rest a little easier,” Barkley says. “It makes me feel like I was an informed buyer of education.”

 

 

Updated: 10/27/2008 | Comment about this page.