Michelle Stenbeck
Bloomington, MN
Regis University, Master of Science in Nursing
Some people spend a lifetime trying to decide what they want to be when they grow up, but Michelle Stenbeck knew all along. “I’ve wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember, which I think it’s pretty unusual for people to know what they want to be at such a young age. I knew it. I was a nursing assistant in high school—it solidified my desire to be a nurse,” Michelle says.
After living out her dream, Michelle decided to further her nursing career with help from The College Network®. “Every year we have a nurses’ celebration and the organization that I work for typically will invite schools… to come and talk about what they do and how they can help people,” Michelle explains.
Michelle credits the exceptional customer service provided by The College Network Program Advisor, Cheryl, for making her decision to enroll easy. “When I applied, I started gathering information on my own only to have [Cheryl] tell me ‘that’s what we’re here for, we can do that,’” Michelle says. “She explained things in a way that I could understand, and that made me very excited to be connected to the university that The College Network connected me to.”
The flexibility of a self-paced program made it possible for Michelle to earn her master’s degree without interrupting her life. “For my lifestyle at the time, the work-life balances, I knew that online was the only option and I had wanted, desperately, to chase my master’s for several years. I chose the online option and it was really easy to engage in the online process because of Cheryl, the representative.”
Though choosing to do an online master’s degree program, Michelle says she had plenty of resources to utilize throughout it. “Starting the classes, I very quickly learned that there are students from all over the country. We were able to share our experiences, exchange tools, make work easier for one another, and learn from one another whether it was related to the topic of the class, or something else. We very quickly learned to pick up the phone and use one another for resources.”
“When you are a busy adult and you want your master’s degree, it doesn’t necessarily come easy because of how you have to balance your work and your life. The College Network and the professors at Regis University, they were fantastic. They would pick up their phone in the evenings, they would give you times to call them, they would do online chats. It took away the barriers you were worried you were going to have when you were doing your master’s. They made it easy for you to do what you wanted to do and be successful,” Michelle says.
> Read more MS in Nursing success stories