Chicago Business Management Degree Owner Opts For Career In Education
There's more to becoming a business management degree owner than just learning accounting and finance. Some universities emphasize personal relationships within a business: the impacts of diversity, communication, leadership, ethics and problem-solving skills.
For Catherine Lockwood, it made sense to utilize her business degrees in education after attending a university with this motto. Lockwood holds a business management degree from Robert Morris University and an M.B.A. in Human Resource Management from Lewis University.
She is now the vice president of Graduate Enrollment at her first alma mater.
"I ended up getting a scholarship at Robert Morris University for my junior/senior year," said Lockwood. "When I graduated with my bachelor's degree, I wanted to give back to the university because of that scholarship. The success that I experienced I was hoping to share that with others. A position opened up in their admissions department, and I began my career with Robert Morris in the admissions department."
Although Lockwood originally started off wanting to own her own business and still is an avid business news reader, she's found that her degree comes in handy in an educational environment, too.
"I use it all the time in my role. [With] my role as a vice president, I must have accounting, finance and statistics to analyze, project and manage a budget. And your general education courses give you more of a bird's-eye view of the world and the community around you. It opens up your eyes to the value of things like diversity, for example, and how other people bring value to the table."
While some students may be none too thrilled to work in groups instead of independently, Lockwood thrives on teamwork tasks.
"I know students go, 'Oh, I don't like the group projects,' but it brings people together. When you pull those ideas together, you come up with ideas, solutions and creative things that are bigger than what you begin with. I just love the atmosphere of being in higher education, seeing people grow and taking advantage of opportunities that are available to them."
Shamontiel L. Vaughn is a professional journalist who has work featured in AXS, Yahoo!, Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune. She's been an Examiner since 2009 and currently writes about 10 categories on Examiner.com.