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12/15/2005
Contact: K.E. Schwab -- 724-738-2199;
e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu
SRU STUDENT 'COMMUTED' ONLINE FROM TEXAS; WILL
GET DIPLOMA ON CAMPUS
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa.
– Tracey Santiago, a Slippery Rock University nursing student
living and working outside Houston, Texas, will be on campus
Saturday [Dec. 17] to receive her diploma even though she has not
been on campus since the early 1990s.
Santiago has earned
her bachelor of science degree in nursing through SRU’s
on-line nursing program, a program that allowed her to take classes
since 2004 via the Internet connected from the campus to her home.
While studying at SRU, Santiago worked weekends as a registered
nurse in labor and delivery at the University of Texas Medical
Branch in Galveston, Texas.
“It was just
something I wanted to do,” she says from her Dickinson,
Texas, home. “The program was really great. It offered me the
chance to study in a way that fit my schedule, and I was able to
work online with other students on group projects and participate
in on-line communication through e-mail and through the Web-based
program. I was usually able to do my school work during the day and
my job on the weekends. It was easy to manipulate through the
program, and the professors were very helpful and
understanding.” The next step, Santiago says is to work
toward a master’s degree in nursing at the University of
Texas.
The
graduation ceremony, set for 1:30 p.m. in Morrow Field House, will
become a family affair with her husband, Hector, and six-year-old
son Ethan joining her for the flight – and ceremony. In
addition, her mother and stepfather, Jan and Jay Turner, will come
from West Virginia, and her grandmother Evelyn Hardwick will fly in
from Texas.
Santiago explains
she first earned her associate degree in nursing from San Jacinto
Junior College in Pasadina, Texas, then enrolled for a
bachelor’s degree at SRU. “I went to classes on campus
from 1990-92 at SRU primarily studying math,” she recalls
adding, “I lived in Bard Hall and later served as a resident
adviser at Krause Hall.” While at SRU, she was a member of
the swim team and played water polo for Dr. Richard Hunkler, now
retired.
After I moved to
Texas, I heard about the SRU on-line program and enrolled. She says
she enjoyed the program so much she has recommended it to co-worker
Lisa Graham from Pasadena, Texas, who will start on-line classes
spring semester.
PN, PGN, WPN, PR, PT
Santiago.kes.doc
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