Welcome to the December 2009 edition of NACTEL News - with news, information, and insights from the National Coalition for Telecommunications and Learning.
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"The people who put the NACTEL program together really understand the working adult."
Todd Berguetski
Central Office Technician
Qwest
CWA 7743
Associate's Degree
Todd has been employed at Qwest for 13 years, transferring from Minnesota to Colorado two years ago. Todd knew that he wasn't a "very good" traditional student and thought online courses would be a better match for him. "I had been taking classes off and on for a while. I finally decided to consolidate all those previous credits and enroll in the NACTEL program at Pace University."
Todd started the NACTEL program in 1998 and worked on his degree a little at a time since then. "I learned not to over do it," Todd said. "Sometimes, I'd get bogged down in school and needed to take a break."
As a member of the Minnesota Army National Guard, Todd was deployed to Iraq in 2003 for a year and had to take time off from his studies. As Todd puts it, "Life would get in the way, but I kept coming back to my coursework."
One of his favorite experiences was that the faculty and support staff at Pace University still knew him each time when he returned to school. "After being out of the program for a while, I contacted my advisor. She remembered me and could easily pull up my information. I didn't have to talk to 12 different people to get an answer."
For Todd, the opportunity to be in class with people from different parts of the country with different experiences was also a real advantage of the program. His advice to other students is, "Stick with it! Even if it takes you 10 years, you are still going to get your degree."
Todd definitely feels his degree will give him a leg up in the future, and he would love to be a Power Engineer with Qwest. Since graduating, he has started looking into Bachelor's degree programs.
AT&T helps Santa go digital this holiday season
This year, children can fast track their holiday wish-list to Santa via text message using AT&T. Between now and December 24th, AT&T customers can use a special text message code to text Santa and receive an invite to text back their wish-list directly to the man himself.
Families can also track Santa's journey on the big night, learn more about the North Pole, Santa's reindeer and much more using AT&T's Santa Tracker app. Click on the link below to find all of the details!
Psychology Today- Unemployment numbers show the importance of education
In an article published in early November by Psychology Today, recent employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that not only do people with more education earn more, but in tough times like these, education provides a buffer against unemployment.
Adult learners are the fastest growing segment of the higher education population. Online learning makes education available to people for whom it was previously out of reach.
The early days of telecom...We've come a long way baby!
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Early communications network |
Early installer |
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