Meeting-and Exceeding-Her Dreams

Crystal L. Johnson is only 25 and she’s already realized one of the greatest dreams of her childhood: getting her Master’s degree. She graduated from American InterContinental University in Houston with her MBA in November 2005. And it gets even better: before she had graduated, Crystal was hired for a management position, Director of Recruiting, at a Baytown-area community college.

“The director position required a Master’s degree. I didn’t have mine quite yet, but they could see I was close and were impressed with the program I was in. I couldn’t even have applied if I wasn’t in the MBA program at AIU.”

AIU wasn’t the first MBA program Crystal tried, however. She first enrolled at another national university. “It would have taken two-and-a-half years to get an MBA, though. Even just at the beginning of that, I was already sick of going to class. I knew that length of time wouldn’t work. I’m friends with some people I met there. I already have my MBA and a great new job, and they’re still sitting in class.”

Crystal chose AIU Houston’s evening-track MBA program. “It was so convenient. I would work from 9 until 6 and then, two nights a week, I had classes from 6 until 10. Sometimes those two days where I had work and classes felt long and tiring, but I could always get through them by reminding myself it was only for a year.”

Crystal doesn’t think she missed out on anything by selecting an accelerated program. “Generally, the program made me much sharper and a better critical thinker. Specifically, there are things from classes I can use every day at work. I use the principles I learned in the capstone course, Strategic Management, to make effective decisions for my department.”

“The classes were always geared towards applying whatever subject we were learning to the real world. I had hated Economics when I took it for my Bachelor’s degree because it seemed so useless. But this time around the professor put it in perspective for its importance in day-to-day business life.”

But it wasn’t just her professors Crystal learned from. “My classmates came from incredibly diverse backgrounds. There were people from Columbia, Nigeria, El Salvador. There were teachers, nurses, nonprofit professionals, and salespeople. Each had different perspectives they brought to class.”

“There were a few times when getting my Master’s seemed like too much of a challenge and even impossible, but I made the sacrifice and now I’m getting the rewards. I urge anyone considering it to go ahead and take the challenge.”

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