The Future Looks Bright: An IT Professional’s Tale
How Earning College Credit for Writing Helped an Emerging IT Professional Successfully Pivot Her Career
Here at CUNY SPS, we understand that college-level learning can happen outside of a traditional classroom. That’s why we award Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) based on our students’ professional and personal expertise. Through this initiative, students may earn college credit for their previous education, work experience, and learning outside of school. In our blog series Earn Credit for What You Know, we invite CUNY SPS students and alum who have received CPL credit to share their own stories.
In today’s installment, we speak with Laurie Volkman, a BS in Information Systems student and emerging IT professional.
Q: Tell us about yourself. What led you to CUNY SPS? What is your major / degree?
A: It’s been a long and winding road to get here. I’m the first person in my family to pursue a college degree. I attended Eugene Lang College at the New School in the early ’00s — I loved it, but halfway through I had to leave school to work full-time to survive. I moved to upstate NY in early 2009 during the recession and found that there were very few available jobs, so I decided to go back to school. I got an AAS in Information Technology from a SUNY community college, intending to work in IT. I ended up using my lifetime of customer service experience to get a job working remotely as a customer experience (CX) agent.
For the last decade, I’ve worked as a CX manager for e-commerce startups, building and leading support teams, most of them remote. However, CX is one of the easiest departments to outsource. I’ve been laid off 4 times because my department was dissolved and outsourced. That pattern was not what I wanted my future to look like, so I started researching online BS programs to upgrade my degree and dust off my IT skills. I found the BS in Information Systems program at SPS and it seemed perfect for me: CUNY academic standards, but completely online so it fit into my remote work style (plus, there was a global pandemic going on). So far I’ve loved the program.
Q: What life experience(s) did you apply toward CPL? How did you acquire this experience(s) or skill(s)?
A: While planning my first semester, I saw that there was a course called “Writing at Work.” I’ve spent most of my life writing in one way or another, and have done a fair amount of writing in professional environments in varied forms. I’ve written replies to customer service emails, created and presented reports, drafted customer-facing company communications, edited marketing emails, and have written over 100 product descriptions for a kosher meat company website. I planned to take the Writing at Work course because I figured that with my body of experience, I could breeze through it and I wanted to ease back in to being a student. When I told my advisor this, she told me that if I thought I had enough experience with writing, I could use CPL to get credit for the course.
Q: Please describe the process by which you got credit for your experience.
A: My advisor recommended that I take the PLA (Prior Learning Assessment) course to pursue CPL. In the PLA course, I learned how to create a portfolio which matched my experience with the learning objectives in the syllabus of the course for which I wanted to get CPL credit. Essentially, I used the syllabus of Writing at Work as a guide, and for each learning objective on the syllabus, I demonstrated how I had learned and applied real-life skills that matched that objective. The portfolio creation process was actually pretty fun for me, because I’m a nerd.
Q: Looking back, how do you think the CPL credits impacted your college journey and, if applicable, your career?
A: I’m very glad that I took advantage of CPL credits and used my prior experience to get credit for a course without having to take it. What this translates to is being able to use the time (and tuition) that I would have spent on that course for a different class, which cut down on the amount of time it’s taking to complete my degree.
Q: What are your plans after you graduate?
A: Spring 2023 should be my final semester at CUNY SPS, and my future has never looked more promising. I’m attempting to change careers at 45, shifting from CX into IT. After graduation I have my sights set on a few certifications: CompTIA A+ as well as their networking and security certifications, and I think I might seek out some cybersecurity training — possibly an internship. I believe taking the project management class as part of my degree program made me eligible to take a project management associate certification exam, so I’ll likely do that as well. I’m open to anything that comes my way.
Q: Do you have any advice for other students who may be interested in seeking credit for prior learning?
A: I can’t recommend CPL enough! Don’t let self-doubt hold you back. If you have even some inkling that your professional or other life experience has taught you the skills described in the syllabus for a course, find out whether you can get credit for prior learning. I was hesitant until I attended an informational webinar about CPL and realized how many different ways our experiences can be contextualized as learning. You didn’t wake up one day knowing everything you understand now— you had to put in effort to learn your skills, and that work has value. Make sure you’re benefitting from your experience as much as possible.
Read more about other credit for prior learning opportunities at CUNY SPS.
