This story appeared in the Spring 2023 issue of Onyx Anneau.
By B.J. Riley ’16, director of marketing
“Life happens.” That was the opening sentence of my essay when I applied to the Woods Online Program in 2013. I was 52 years old and had a thriving newspaper career. I had accomplished much throughout my career as the newspaper publisher in Terre Haute for Terre Haute’s Tribune-Star. In the 27 years that I had been working and advancing in the newspaper industry, I had not been held back because I lacked an undergraduate degree. I had to work harder than others with a degree, but the hard work was consistently recognized. I was pretty lucky.
I attended college for three years right after high school as a business major and decided to get married just after my junior year. I went to work while my wife, at the time, finished her degree. Once she graduated, I planned to go back and complete my degree. She finished her degree and was pregnant with our first son when she graduated. I found a job working at my hometown newspaper selling ads.
In 2009, I became the publisher of the Tribune-Star. In 2010, I met Dottie King, who had become the interim president of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC). One day she came for a visit, and as President King is known to do, she wanted to get to know me. She spent time finding out more about me as a person rather than me as just the publisher of the local newspaper. After discovering that I had not finished college, she introduced me to Woods Online and encouraged me to return to school.
I was intrigued by the prospect of completing my degree, especially one that was designed to work around a busy schedule. I had never quit anything in my life. Even though I was happy with my career path and did not see then the degree as a benefit to my job, I wanted to close the door to something I had yet to finish. Plus, with four sons, I wanted them to see how important getting a degree was to me and that I was willing to do what I encouraged them to do.
Interestingly, over the next two and a half years my education taught me a lot about myself while I was learning the course material. I always said I didn’t have time to return to school when I was really just afraid of returning, worried that I wouldn’t remember how to learn and feared failing.
When I walked across the stage in May 2016 to receive my diploma from President King, it was one of the proudest days of my life. I had accomplished what I thought was impossible, and my family was there to see my commencement. While in the online program, I was impressed with the support I received from people at The Woods.
Today, I am the Director of Marketing at SMWC, and am grateful each day to be here. I am at The Woods today because “life happens.” Recently, I completed my master’s in leadership development (MLD) and this spring began the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program in the inaugural SMWC cohort. Learning has become part of my Woods’ journey. If not for the WOL program and the degree I earned, I would not have had this opportunity to be at the College. It’s funny how The Woods can bring out the best in people and has certainly brought out the best in me.
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