CE Student Celebrates Graduation Eight Years in the Making

“This degree has been a long time in coming,” said Cori Fagan, smiling from behind her work desk. The Education Program Specialist for the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is days away from graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Classics and a Certificate in Western Civilization. She plans to celebrate her accomplishment with her 10-year old son and extended family.

When Cori rebooted her academic journey eight years ago, she challenged herself to complete her undergraduate degree before her son finished elementary school—all while balancing a full-time job and the responsibilities of parenthood.

Her path to graduation started years before at St. Edward’s University in Texas, but she was compelled to leave midway through her program for financial and personal reasons. Cori took on a full-time job, got married and started a family, but she never lost the desire to go back to school. Years into her career she also realized her best chance of progressing professionally was to earn her undergraduate degree. So, in 2010 she decided to apply to CU Boulder to finish it.

When Cori returned she found new motivation and focus, which propelled her to greater performance in her classes.

“As an initial undergraduate, I had a B+ average,” said Cori. “Since I’ve come back to school, I have a 3.86 average GPA because I want it more here. I had a plan when I started my degree again. I mapped out my requirements, knew what courses I was going to take, and had back-up courses in case my first choices didn’t work out.”

For the last eight years, Cori enrolled in one or two classes nearly every semester—including summers. While most of her required courses were daytime offerings, Cori took one evening and one online course because the topics sounded more interesting and they satisfied upper division requirements for her degree and certificate, respectively.

“Continuing Education’s courses were helpful,” said Cori. “The Greek Art & Archaeology evening course I took in 2015 was particularly useful because I needed to take two classes that semester to stay on track. I could take one course during the day and one at night, which worked with my schedule.”

Cori will meet the goal she set for herself so many years ago with just 15 days to spare! “My son is very excited for me,” she beamed.

Cori believes her education will indelibly influence her future. “I am huge trivia geek and I love the knowledge I’ve acquired during this program. It has enriched my life and inspired me to travel. And now that I’m graduating, I have the time to explore.”

If you would like to celebrate your own graduation in the future, contact a Continuing Education advisor to help you map your academic journey.