Know what works for you. It’s YOUR degree.
"You have to be focused and maintain your own pace,” says Willie Mason, adult student from Winston-Salem. “Know what works for you. It’s YOUR degree. You’ll finish when you finish. Don’t be pressured.”
For Willie, a Communication Studies major employed full-time by American Express, two courses a semester is the right pace. He has maintained it steadily and successfully since fall, 2004, making nearly all A’s. His success as an adult student is especially gratifying because an earlier period at UNCG did not go so well.
Willie first came to UNCG in 1985 as a traditional freshman. He had been a good high-school student, but “the freedom of university life got the best of me,” he recalls; “some of my friends had cars,” and “I had some 8 o’clock classes and didn’t always feel like going.” After four semesters, his grades were not good and he decided to sit out a semester.
When he landed a series of good jobs, his break from school stretched out to over 17 years. He worked in public relations and sports marketing for RJ Reynolds and then in marketing research for Lifesavers, a RJR subsidiary. In 1996, when the company headquarters left Winston-Salem, he found a job through networking at American Express in Greensboro. He has thrived there as an Executive Associate for Communications and Public Affairs.
It’s not the same job every day
At his company, he wears many hats. He provides administrative support for American Express’s philanthropic grants and volunteer programs. He co-leads the Black Employee Network and teaches a recurring employee-development workshop called “Building on Your Abilities.” He also helps plan reward trips for employee recognition. “It’s not the same job every day,” he concludes. In addition, he directs the “Celebration Choir,” a group of 30-40 American Express singers who practice on their own time and perform widely in the community.
One attraction of a job with American Express was its proximity to UNCG, the campus where he had always intended to return. Fortunately, Willie has found American Express to be very supportive of his decision to finish the degree he began as a young student. The company pays 90% of his tuition, and his boss allows him flexible scheduling to take classes. “My boss is fabulous,” he says; “I have his whole-hearted support,” along with that of colleagues and even his boss’s boss.
The first semester back in school, he signed up for two classes: Communication Studies and Religion. When he made an A and an A-, he thought, “Willie, you’re doing this; you’re on your way.” His work in public relations had given him a new direction academically. He changed his major from Business to Communication Studies and has never looked back.
Willie finds that his work experience and his academic efforts reinforce each other in rewarding, sometimes surprising, ways. Certainly his work has made him comfortable doing presentations. “I’m not a great orator,” he acknowledges, but he has developed an effective “motivational” approach, honed not only at work, but from 15 years as public relations director at his church. After one of his presentations for Strategic Communications, a fellow student found an unusual way to pay him a compliment: “What class are you teaching next semester?” he asked Willie, “I want to sign up!”
"We enjoy working with Willie"
Another way Willie’s experience in the corporate world has helped him in the classroom is through understanding how to participate effectively in group work. If he finds his fellow group members are having a hard time getting focused, he shows them how to develop a “project plan” to divide responsibilities. He tells younger classmates, “you have to look the part;” for one assignment, he helped them replace ball caps and jeans with a snappy black and white dress code. “Thank you Willie,” they said after getting their best score ever on the presentation. “We enjoy working with Willie; he brings structure and we rely on him.”
Another instance where Willie’s work and school experiences have overlapped grew out of a UNCG service-learning class for which he served food on Wednesday nights at Grace Community Church. In an on-going relationship with the church, Willie has brought his colleagues in the Celebration Choir to sing on two occasions, and he recently presented the church a check for $500 from American Express.
Willie’s current Communication Studies class, “Communicating Common Ground: Diversity and Dialogue,” will provide perspectives he can take back to work. “It goes both ways,” he says; “sometimes I bring American Express to the classroom, and sometimes I take things from the classroom to American Express.”
Willie’s free time is in short supply, with his full-time job, his course load of two classes per semester, his involvement in church, and his activities with a large, close-knit family that includes his mother, his four siblings and their children. He does find time to watch “Law and Order,” his favorite TV show.
Willie feels at home on campus, though he is sometimes amused at the gap between his experience and that of the younger students. “Don’t you even own jeans?” they ask, since he comes to class directly from work. Once, standing outside his English classroom, he was asked a question about the text book by a fellow student who assumed he was the teacher. But he has found friends on campus among the adult student community and values the support they give to each other, sharing “best practices” tips about classes and professors, “applauding each other,” and providing encouragement to keep going.
I started it and I don’t want to be a quitter
Ten classes remain before Willie completes his degree, including foreign language and a required science. It is challenging at times, and he sometimes gets “sick of reading.” But his motivation remains strong: “I want to do it; I started it and I don’t want to be a quitter. I want to go ahead and finish,” he vows.
When he does complete his degree, he has no plans to change jobs; “I’m staying with American Express,” he affirms. He also feels a strong loyalty to UNCG. “I’d love to come back here and teach a class in Communications,” he says; it would be a satisfying culmination of his long relationship with UNCG to become in reality the professor he was once mistaken to be.
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Page updated: 06-May-2009
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