This month, Jeremy Kiene shares his story of how he decided to change his career from Renaissance Literature to Veterinary Medicine, and his experience with OSU Ecampus Chemistry along the way.

 

How did you find our chemistry program?  Any advice for us that would have made that process easier for you?

To be honest, I found out about OSU’s online chemistry program through a late-night Google search, conducted in a moment of despair when I was worried I’d never be able to get into a college chemistry course without taking on a mountain of debt by applying for admission into a second four-year bachelor’s degree program. The descriptions of the courses on the program website immediately piqued my interest, and I think I applied for admission for the fall quarter’s CH 121 the next day. Navigating the program’s stylishly designed and very informative website was no problem, and once I’d been admitted, I found OSU’s online student services equally user-friendly.

 

Please share your background so we can get to know you better—how did you end up where you are on this journey?

I grew up in Colorado and now live in Southern California. In what now feels like a former life even though it wasn’t that long ago, I earned a Ph.D. in English, and for several years I taught Renaissance literature, first at a small liberal arts college on the East Coast and then at large research university on the West Coast. But a life-long love of animals, combined with volunteer experiences starting in graduate school and some serendipitous meetings with some really smart and inspiring people led me to a different calling. Now I am preparing to attend a DVM program in hopes of becoming a veterinarian.

 

What inspired you to choose the career path you are working towards?

I’ve always been fascinated by the natural sciences, and I’ve always loved animals of all kinds (not just my own pets, but just about any kind of wildlife you could mention), but it wasn’t until I’d already gone down a very different path and had success in a very different career that I came around to thinking seriously about veterinary medicine. I studied English literature in graduate school, but during that time I also started volunteering at an animal shelter regularly. It was a joy spending time with all the dogs and cats waiting for their permanent homes, but I also saw more than my share of animal suffering and human ignorance and cruelty that made me wish I could do something more direct, more tangible, more profound in the service of animals and their people. Fast-forward to three years ago when I met a veterinary oncologist who had herself come to veterinary medicine following a successful career in another field. She is now a mentor and dear friend of mine, and her encouragement and example convinced me that with a lot of sacrifice and hard work, it might be possible to make the radical change in my professional and personal life that I’ve since undertaken.

 

How will your OSU online classes help you to accomplish your career goals?

Since I’m not seeking a second bachelor’s degree, I’ve been in the process of cobbling together veterinary prerequisite courses in the sciences from several institutions, and due to extremely high student demand (and my place at the end of the registration queue as a non-degree seeking student), it’s often been a challenge to get a seat in courses offered at local colleges and universities (even the one where I was until recently employed as a faculty member!). This is what initially brought me to Oregon State’s online general chemistry sequence. When I discovered OSU’s program, it meant that I could complete my chemistry prerequisites on a schedule that worked for me, at a reasonable tuition rate, with faculty at a top-notch research university (added bonus: OSU has a vet school, so with any luck this is just the beginning of my association with Beaver Nation!). Being in the general chemistry sequence really was a highlight of my time in higher education. Reflecting back on the experience, I am still astonished at how much I learned, how much my confidence grew, and most of all at how much I came to adore a subject that, I’ll admit, terrified me back when I was first exposed to it in high school.  Even better, I get to use what I’ve learned every day at work when I’m mixing medications and calculating fluid rates for my animal patients!

 

Do you have any advice for other online students?

Be disciplined. Make a schedule and stick to it, and plan on putting in some work on your online courses every day. When your physical presence in a lecture hall or seminar room isn’t required at particular times during the week, it can be tempting to take days off here and there, but success in chemistry is all about practice and repetition. Most importantly, don’t hesitate to ask questions and seek out extra help. When I first enrolled in OSU’s online general chemistry sequence, I was worried that I’d get lost in the shuffle of a large lecture course, with the online format presenting an additional challenge since I’d miss out on direct interaction with faculty and classmates to help solidify my knowledge base. These fears were unfounded, however, as the online discussion forums offered plenty of opportunities to seek clarification and test out my understanding.   For the sequence I took last year, Dr. Marita Barth and her staff of teaching assistants were wonderful—they were excited about the subject matter, eager to share their expertise, and amazingly quick, thorough, and helpful in their responses to my questions. It was plain to me throughout the sequence that their number one priority was putting their students in the best possible position to reach their goals.

 

What is next for you?

I just finished applying to veterinary programs for the first time this fall, so hopefully vet school is next. But I’ve got my work cut out for me, that’s for sure! I’m employed as a technician at an animal hospital, and when I’m not there I am doing my best to finish my outstanding prerequisites (including, I hope, OSU’s online organic chemistry sequence starting this winter!) before fall 2016 rolls around.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

In my spare time I love traveling and being outdoors (hiking, camping, and photographing landscapes and wildlife), going to art and history museums, tasting beer at microbreweries, watching just about any sporting event (soccer, hockey, and football are my favorites), watching movies, and reading poetry, sci-fi novels, and non-fiction.

 

Do you have a family you would like to tell us about?

I live with my brilliant and patient wife (she is also an English professor—we met in graduate school) and our two dogs (Homer and Winnie) and four cats (Walt, Quinn, Brey, and Blaze). We regularly foster for a rescue organization that pulls dogs from high-kill municipal shelters, so more often than not there’s a third dog in the rotation. It’s a full house, but we take pride in keeping things clean and orderly…or at least trying!

 

Thank you Jeremy for sharing your story! We wish you luck with your future endeavors, educational and otherwise!

OSU Ecampus Chemistry asked Joel M., a high school chemistry teacher in Michigan, to share his experience with our online Environmental Chemistry course and the ways it can benefit his career. Here’s his story:

I have been a high school chemistry teacher for the past 20 years. After obtaining my undergraduate degree in Chemistry, with education endorsements in Chemistry and Physics, I began my teaching career – teaching in the same high school ever since. Almost immediately after I began teaching, I started working on my Master’s degree. At that time, the local universities did not have any Chemistry-related Master’s degree programs geared for educators, so I completed a general Master’s program in Education.

Since then, I have continued to maintain my teaching certification in Michigan by obtaining continuing education credits. In doing so, I have tried to find courses that would help me in my teaching. I have found a few Chemistry-related workshops and shorter courses from local universities, but as I have become busier with my family life, I have been looking for online courses that would give me the flexibility to complete the coursework from home and at a time that works for me. In addition, I wanted to experience an online course so that I could be taught as many students are now being taught today. Perhaps this experience would also affect the way I would teach in my own classroom.

After a fairly brief internet search, it became apparent that Oregon State had a reputable Chemistry online curriculum. I searched the course offerings for this past spring session and was pleased to see an Environmental Chemistry course. I felt that this would be a valuable course for me as some of the topics would relate well to some of the things I teach in my own classroom (not to mention my own interest in the environment).

I found that the course was relevant and helpful. I learned many things about the environment, but perhaps more importantly, I learned how online courses operate. I enjoyed the flexibility; I could do the homework and readings when it worked for me rather than at a set time at a specific campus location. Consequently, the online course saved me commute time—which was very important, as I covet every minute with my family.

Since I prefer live interaction with people (for example, I prefer to do my banking with a person rather than with an ATM), the lack of personal contact in an online class was originally an area of concern. However, the online lectures and step-by-step tutorials were very well done. The instructor regularly and promptly communicated with us and was very willing to answer any and all of our questions. So, overall, I found the online experience to be excellent.

Although I hope to be able to take another online chemistry course in the future, I plan to first spend some time improving my own teaching. I think there are some interesting opportunities that arose from my online experience that could be employed in my classroom. I believe there are elements of a “flipped classroom” (which has the students listen to videotaped versions of the lectures at home, leaving class time for discussion and problem solving—and thus in some ways parallels an online classroom) that could be advantageous at times in my chemistry classes. In addition, I think that some of the tutorials used in the online Environmental Chemistry course at Oregon State could be modeled at the high school level to give to students—for example, a portfolio of “step-by-step” solutions to difficult stoichiometry problems. Even online quizzes could be utilized at the high school level in order to quickly reinforce certain content.

Overall, I enjoyed my Oregon State online chemistry course. Not only did I learn the content (and enjoyed doing that from the comfort of my home and with the flexibility I needed at this time in my life), I learned another teaching technique that I believe can be incorporated to some degree in my own classrooms. I appreciated this opportunity.