UMGC Grad Fulfills 40-Year Promise

While in high school, Whitney had received an appointment to the Air Force Academy. Then she learned she was pregnant. A sister offered to raise the child while Whitney was starting her military career, but Whitney recognized it would be a wrenching decision later when Whitney wanted to take back her role as parent.

"I made a choice to keep custody of my daughter and let go of my appointment," she said. She enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps instead, and her mother and sister took care of her little girl when she was in training. Today that daughter is 39.

Now with her youngest children, 20-year-old twins, in college, Whitney decided it was time for her to continue her education.

"I'd been wanting to go back to school for quite a while," she said. "For a lot of women in the military, we get out of the service, we have a family and the 10 years we have to use our GI bill runs out before we're ready to go back."

After leaving the Marine Corps, Whitney became an IT manager. After marrying her current husband, she worked briefly to help him finish his education then stayed home for 15 years to raise their children.

"I later went through the law enforcement academy, but departments weren't looking to hire 50-year-old rookies," she said.

In 2015, she was hired by Apple Corp., where she is a corporate security manager.

Apple's educational partnership with UMGC covered much of her tuition, and she received experience and transfer credits that reduced the coursework she needed to take. Coworkers supported her educational journey. She also had high praise for UMGC staff who connected with her at intervals to make sure she was doing all right.

"One day I even got an email from my professor, just checking in on me," she added.

But Whitney said it was her "amazing husband" who provided the pivotal encouragement that helped her stay on track.

She chose UMGC because of its reputation for working with students who are veterans and because, long ago, she knew someone who went through the University System of Maryland and had a happy experience. She described the process for enrolling and starting classes a month later "seamless."

Once back in the classroom, this time the virtual classroom, she learned something that surprised her. "I discovered how much I loved school," she said.

She home-schooled her children and hoped they would become lifelong learners but never realized how much she herself enjoyed the learning process until she started her degree program. Her ultimate goal is to become a chief information security officer for Apple or another tech company.

"Long ago I gave up my dreams of doing what I wanted. My vision for the future was focused on my husband's career or my children," Whitney said. "The great thing about this degree is that it was for me."