Transitioning to a new career can be challenging. Many individuals face the difficulty of leveraging their existing qualifications while adapting to a completely different field.

Stacy Fellows originally graduated from Saginaw Valley State University with her bachelor's degree in chemistry and spent many years working at Perrigo, where she researched prescription medications to create more widely accessible generic brands like Cetirizine, loratadine, Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen. 

Despite beginning her career in a completely different field, Stacy has recently graduated from AQ with her Early Childhood Education degree and is currently finishing her Accelerated Master’s in Education (AME). She has shared her success story and how AQ’s AME program provided a flexible and supportive pathway for her new career. 

From Pharmaceutical Researcher to Educator 

Stacy found success in the pharmaceutical industry. After becoming a stay-at-home mom to raise her six children, now between the ages of 12 to 23, she found herself reevaluating her career goals and seeking a new direction that would better align with her evolving personal and family needs.

Stacy explained that – being actively involved in her children's schools – she spent time volunteering in classrooms and around the school environment. She noted that there were more opportunities to be in the school setting, unlike her previous experience in a lab, where she hadn't worked in a long time. She viewed it as a chance to explore a new career path.

As a result, Stacy returned to college and earned her Bachelor’s in Early Education from Aquinas. She did her student teaching in kindergarten and enjoyed it immensely, but she says that her ideal age to teach is first or second grade. After finishing her degree, she took a turn and became a paraprofessional at the same school that her children attend. 

“Susan English, the dean at the time, suggested I try the AME program. I’m actually not quite done with the master's part of this program. You get five years to go back, so I’m currently in the program and finishing up the last few classes,” Stacy explains. 

Her job right now is to work with sixth-grade students both in the classroom and one-on-one to improve their reading, writing and math skills. Stacy explains that most students she works with have an individual education plan (IEP) that states why they need help, but she works with students with a wide range of needs. 

“I usually see students who are struggling with reading,” Stacy stated. “Some students are struggling with language, so they need help in English with mostly writing. I have students who are struggling with math, but it’s mostly English and reading. And then some students are in the Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) classroom. This year, I had an eighth grader. He’s on the spectrum, and I helped him in two of his classes.”

Stacy explains that working as a paraprofessional has been a great experience, as she’s able to work in the same school as her children. It provides her with enough flexibility to raise her children and pursue her Master’s in Education. 

“Eventually, after I’m done with my degree, I would like to challenge myself to have my own classroom. That’s the ultimate goal,” Stacy states. She explains that Aquinas has given her the knowledge to help students effectively. She has gained valuable insights into the language and strategies needed to support them, and – once she has her own class – she feels confident she can better assist students who need the same kind of help as her current students.

Stacy’s AQ Experience 

Stacy expressed that the biggest benefits of attending AQ’s AME program were its convenient, partially online, accelerated format and its flexibility for continuing education students.

“I enjoyed going into the classroom and talking to the other students in my cohort, getting to know them and being able to work with them in person,” she states. “It was really neat to get to know other people who are going through the same process: a change of career. Most people already had a degree, and this was a way to go further without having to start from scratch. Starting over again as an undergraduate would be a lot. I liked that they took advantage of the courses you already had and were able to incorporate those into the courses you had to take to finish the degree.” 

She appreciated the opportunity to return to school and earn her degree alongside other older students, as it provided a supportive environment with a shared understanding of different life stages. 

Stacy explained, “I knew a lot of students were older, so my being older too was a benefit. Not necessarily out of competition with the younger students, but because there was more of an understanding of the different lifestyle you may have at that time. Sometimes people have a change of heart about what they study. Maybe they want to be a teacher instead of what they did before. This was a really easy way to do that.”