Sue Moyer and her son Nick Moyer didn’t intend to graduate together. From the same university. With the same degree – in their case, a masters in business administration.
Yet life has a way of working out in such circumstances.
Now the Moyers are graduating with their MBAs this year from Stetson University, although the ceremony won’t be until December. Both grasped what the other endured in terms of the diligence and time consumption that go with being a graduate student.
“It was interesting graduating together,” Sue said. “Who would have thought? It wasn’t planned out that way; it ended up being that way. I think the good thing is you have somebody who understands what you’re going through in grad school.”
“I believe it’s also the fact that it sounds like you’re exaggerating: ‘There’s no way they’d make you do that,’” Nick said. “Or when it comes to assignments: ‘Oh, you have 30 minutes (to complete an assignment),’ and you’re like, ‘Huh?’”
Sue, who has a career background in information technology, said she had always wanted to complete her MBA, but had to keep shelving that goal. She graduated in 1997 from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn. with a major in psychology and a minor in Business Computer Information Systems.
“I had always wanted to do it, and I thought when I had quit working when I was pregnant with Nick, that I would do an MBA,” she said.
“Then when he went to kindergarten, I would go back to work in IT project management like I’d done before I quit working, so I thought I would do my MBA then. I never did. I ended up homeschooling Nick, so then I did some teaching and things like that with private schools that ran on a university model. Then, when he went to college, I got a job and ended up being accepted.”
Nick is looking for a position in the finance, management or marketing industry. Sue wants to re-enter IT project management or IT training field. Yet the COVID-19 pandemic has put a halt on those plans.
“Obviously, I’m hoping for this entire coronavirus thing to slowly go away so I can start applying and interviewing for jobs. I can’t do anything right now,” Nick said. “Hopefully, maybe something in financing would be nice, like a regular career.”
“A lot of them are just posting jobs and collecting resumes, they’re not actually interviewing or looking to fill positions because they don’t know how their businesses would go or how long this would happen,” Sue said. “That’s the hard part for all of our high school and college graduates right now. They’re having the same issue.”
According to Nick, his father Scott thinks it’s “crazy” that Nick is 22 years old with a masters degree, and for Sue to return full-time to pursue an MBA 23 years later and complete the program in one year.
“The fact she was able to get it done in the same regular school year that I was,” Nick said. “I was focusing on school, but she was working and doing stuff around the house with us, and doing school.”
Nick, who was homeschooled and a member of the Apopka High School bowling team, became a Stetson University freshman in August 2016 with a full-time course load, even during the summer sessions.
This story appears in full in the Friday, May 29, issue of The Apopka Chief, starting on page 1A. Subscribe today!
