Blog Category: Student Success

Allie Firebaugh decided to pursue a career in teaching after graduating Emory & Henry College with three majors: physics, math, and French. Although she never considered teaching her dream job, inspiring young minds was a rewarding experience. Over time, however, it became clear to her that something was missing in her professional life. “I’m a perfectionist,”…

A lifelong artist, Hillary Hardiman has always been a creative person. But at 18, she put her creative juices on the back burner. Instead of majoring in art, Hillary studied biomedical engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University—and continued there to earn her master’s degree in product innovation. Hillary went on to become operations consultant at Bank of America—but…

Just a year ago, Patrick Chu was the general manager of a chain restaurant in Virginia. He had never touched data analytics software, nor thought much about the field. Today, he’s a data analyst for one of the country’s largest banks, Capital One. According to Patrick, this major transition was simple and surprisingly fast—thanks to the University of…

Alexa Oswald remembers her first day at boot camp vividly. Feelings of uncertainty and inadequacy clouded her head. Her experience as a taekwondo instructor hadn’t prepared her for this. As she entered the classroom for the first time, her class advisor held open the door and said something that made Alexa scoff: “Get ready. This class…

Many women choose to put their careers on hold after having a baby, at least for a little while. For Carla Cox, this was only partly true. Hailing from Argentina, Carla was on a student visa to get her degree in computer engineering in the U.S. Just when she finished college (in fact, it was on…

Kevin Kafuku was mentally drained. Between his job as a help desk analyst at a Hyundai dealership and his associate’s degree program at John Tyler Community College, Kevin was working well over 80 hours each week. Something had to change. Then he discovered the University of Richmond Coding Boot Camp, and Kevin found himself on a journey…