Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
7/19/99
For immediate release
Contacts:
Lynette Spicer, Extended and Continuing Education (515)
294-1327, lspicer@iastate.edu
Lois Hunt, Extended and Continuing Education (515) 294-4803,
x1hunt@exnet.iastate.edu
Northwest Iowa Man Graduates Before Son Completes High School
Ames, IOWA--When determined people set goals, they stick with them until they are accomplished -- no matter how long it takes.
Ron Becker, 39, of St. Joseph in northwestern Iowa, is such a person. In 1977, just out of high school, he moved to the Iowa State University campus to begin studies in civil engineering. Things stayed on-track for the next two years. Then his father, who owned Becker Construction Co., Inc., in St. Joseph, made a major expansion in his sales and construction of grain storage and drying systems business.
"I decided to drop out of school for three or four years to help him out," said Becker. But life has a way of changing plans. The business kept him in St. Joseph; he married and had children. Becker and his brother now run the family business. He never lost sight of getting that degree, however.
In the mid 1980s, through the ISU College of Agriculture's distance education degree program and the flexible delivery vehicles of the university's Extended and Continuing Education extension unit, Becker started on that degree goal again. Becker had Iowa State audit his college transcript to determine how many credits would transfer into the agriculture program.
Over the next decade, when his time allowed, he was able to take Iowa State credit courses by videotape and on the Internet. Even exams could be taken by logging on to the Internet. On a few Saturdays, lab-based courses meant he traveled to campus in Ames. He filled in with a few courses at Iowa Lakes Community College.
Last spring, Becker graduated, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Professional Agriculture degree. It ties directly into his business.
The distance education degree programs at ISU made realizing his goal possible, Becker explained. "I would not have been able to complete the degree any other way." Becker also accomplished a secondary goal: "I wanted to be done with college when my son graduated from high school."
Five persons graduated under Iowa State's professional agriculture distance education program last spring, according to Helen Olson, undergraduate adviser for the off-campus program. Some 40 students took courses by videotape, over the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) system or on the Internet.
Flexibility seems to be the key to the success of the program, which began for undergraduates in 1991. Previously, the distance program had been designed for those seeking graduate degrees in agriculture.
"We offer the agriculture-related classes," explained Olson. Other needed courses in math, chemistry and the like can be taken at nearby community colleges and worked into the degree program.
The degree program encompasses three major areas of study: animal ecology and sciences; agricultural social sciences and economics; and plant and soil sciences. Among courses for fall 1999 are such listings as Presentation and Sales Strategies for Agricultural Audiences; Land Drainage and Irrigation; Issues in Sustainable Agriculture; Principles of Microeconomics; Biotechnology in Agriculture, Food and Human Health; Sociology of Technology; and Introduction to Meteorology among others.
Olson said there are a few students from other countries, such as Canada, enrolled in the program and a number from out-of-state, particularly Wisconsin, where the distance agriculture degree program was discontinued. She also said she has received inquiries about the program from places as close as Kansas and as far away as the Caribbean Islands.
Distance doesn't necessarily mean "remote" for students. Olson said she keeps in steady contact with her advisees through letters, e-mail and telephone. "I get to know them pretty well."
Both Olson, the advisor, and Becker, the advisee, see the flexibility and distance delivery of the program as the vital components for some people to be able to accomplish that degree goal. Courses are taken when a student has the time to take them. Sometimes, as in the case of Becker, a degree program can spread over a decade-plus, fitting around family and business obligations of the adult learner.
Registration for fall courses in the Bachelor of Science in Professional Agriculture program is open through August 16. Registrations can be taken by fax, mail, e-mail or at the Web site. For information, contact the College of Agriculture distance education office at (515) 294-1862 or (800) 747-4478. Or contact the Extended and Continuing Education office for information about any distance program at (800) 262-0015 or through the Web site at www.lifelearner.iastate.edu.
Extension programs are available to all without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability.