My list of post-secondary institutions attended is a short one, and but for one online class taken at a small college some years ago while pursuing ordination, all of my college work was done at one institution. In other words, the short answer is two. (That, technically, answers today’s prompt. But if you’re interested in the rest of the story, do read on…)
I moved with my family to Lawrence, Kansas in 1966, just as I was beginning the seventh grade. I attended junior high and high school here, and upon my graduation in 1972, I did the only thing I ever imagined that I could do–I enrolled at the University of Kansas, which is located right here in Lawrence. We were not a particularly wealthy family, and though I was an honor student by the time I was a junior in high school, I didn’t really work hard enough to garner any significant scholarship money that might have given me the opportunity to attend an out-of-town institution. Even though in-state tuition was quite low in those days (less than $200 per semester in 1972), were it not for a $60 scholarship for books and the fact that I could live at home while attending, I’d have had a hard time even attending KU.
Fortunately I was able to attend KU for four years. As a junior I entered the William Allen White School of Journalism and Public Information at KU, where I eventually earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism, with a major in Radio-TV-Film. I was prepared for a career in documentary film-making, but as it turned out, I took a five-year detour into para-church youth ministry right after I graduated from KU, and then worked in the local public school district for a time as a media technician. Eventually I took at job as a technical writer in computing services at the university, where I worked for many years, until I became involved with a state-wide non-profit research and education network initiative, which is where I spent a large chunk of my career prior to shifting back into church ministry.
In about 1982, when I was still working for the school district, I enrolled in an introductory course in computer programming, because I was learning to program an Apple II+ microcomputer that was owned by the media program I worked for in the district, and nobody else in the office really knew what to do with it. I took it home on weekends and essentially taught myself, but felt I should get some more formal training at KU, so I started in the Computer Science program there.
I continued to take a few CS classes after I got married, but within a few months we were pregnant, and when our first child was born, night classes and studying became a lot harder. I still pursued programming, though, and eventually cut back my hours at the district and began doing some freelance programming. Before long a position came open at the KU Computing Center, and my computing experience helped me land the job, first as a publications editor, and later as a technical writer and consultant.
I worked at KU from 1984 until 1993, and during that time I began to revive an old interest in electronics. I decided to enroll again in the engineering program at KU, and began taking some of the prerequisite classwork, mostly physics and advanced math, some of which I had taken during my unimpressive senior year in high school, and thus needed to try again. I did surprisingly well and made it through the calculus and linear algebra, all the way to applied differential equations, until, with another child at home, the study schedule and night classes weren’t practical. And I figured I could study on my own and learn what I really wanted to learn.
Around 1990, while still working in Computing Services at KU, I saw an interesting opportunity. Though the Internet was not yet available to the public at large in 1990, we had a connection at the university, and I was one of the writers who was tasked with researching some of the rapidly-growing capabilities, resources and programs that were available to the academic community–things like online library resources, and the various communication protocols that allowed the sharing of information worldwide. (This was before the World Wide Web was really a thing.) In the process of writing papers and user documentation for Internet-related programs and such, I began to realize that there was research yet to be done in the field of computer-mediated communication, so I thought this might be a good time to apply for a graduate program in communication studies.
I took the GRE exam, consulted with the department chair, was admitted to the program, and began my first year of graduate school about the time we were pregnant with our third child. I thought I could balance my full-time job with parenting (my wife was also working full-time at the university), but alas, it was not to be. After a year of graduate studies, I tabled it, hoping to return one day. (I never did.)
In 1993 I left my job at KU Computing Services to work for a new organization that had spun off from the computer center–a statewide data network to support education and research in Kansas–and three years later I was the executive director of that organization. My new responsibilities and the frenetic pace of growth of the organization and its staff took going back to school right off the table. and eleven years later, thoroughly burned-out and ready for a change, I left the organization, took a year off to pause and regroup, did some writing, some Web development and such, and worked on my mental health.
Exactly one year later an opportunity came open to work at my church–I was always a dedicated volunteer at church, and my wife was actually on the church staff as a youth pastor at this point. The job was an amalgam of leading the worship band (which I had done for many years as a volunteer, and later for a small stipend), managing the church data network, managing the church Web presence, and managing the church information system, plus taking care of sound and media equipment, publishing the church newsletter, and more. It was actually the perfect position for me.
Several years into that job, which I loved, I decided to pursue ordination as a pastor in our denomination. At the time there was an ordination program for candidates who were previously experienced in ministry, and my former youth ministry experience and my many years of Bible teaching and music ministry as a volunteer qualified me for the program, so I began my ordination preparation in 2015. There was a little bit of coursework I needed to take in the areas of church history and polity and Wesleyan theology. Several courses were sponsored by the denomination, but the theology course required me to enroll at one of our denominational colleges, which happened to be located in Kansas. I was able to take the class online, which finally brings me to the second college I attended: Central Christian College of Kansas, located in McPherson.
I was ordained in 2017, and continued working at my church for a few more years, until it became clear that I could retire, which I did in mid-2020, as the pandemic was raging. I have considered pursuing a seminary degree since then–there are many great programs that can be done mostly online–but the expense and my age convinced me that I could probably learn what I really wanted to learn through my own reading and studies.
(But even at age 69 I still think about going back to school from time to time.)
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(Posted in response to 1/3/2024 prompt)
doug heacock: words 