The Cost of Education: WGU

Since graduating high school in 2001 I have started and stopped school eight times. Education is important, however I do not feel that attending a traditional college is the only, nor the best method, to obtain an education. I found it hard to attend classes that had no bearing on the path I have chosen for myself. It is hard to attend a regular university when travel has become the staple diet of your life...

After 5 years of attending college off and on I completed my 2 year associated degree in general business. I began looking at colleges and applied to many at different points over the next few years and attended several of them for a time. During this time I worked and attended school at the University of Phoenix. During my time there I took a number of classes at an accelerated rate and thought I'd found what I was looking for in terms of schooling that fit my learning style. After a time, however, it didnt work anymore! Some tramatic events occured in my life and I quit working there, which meant I had to begin to pay for my schooling at the University of Phoenix... expensive to say the least!

After a few months I stopped my classes at the University of Phoenix as I could not focus on school with the death of a close friend and my younger brother fresh on my mind. About six months later, this past January, 2009 I was ready to attempt to get a degree again. The only reason I wanted to get a Bachelors degree was because there were Masters programs I wished to attend but could not because I didn't yet have a Bachelors!

While I was working at the University of Phoenix I met a young woman who quit there shortly before I did... she left to work at Western Governors University and was excited about it! We talked about them a lot - they charged tuition by timeframe instead of by credit hour. Whereas at the University of Phoenix the cost per year would exceed $10,000 only taking 24 credits at Western Governors University the tuition cost was roughly $3,000 for a six month period of time... no matter how many credits were completed.

This January I remembered all we had talked about and I called her and asked her to be my mentor as I continued my education. I got enrolled at WGU and finally have found my type of education. If I have learned anything in this process I have been in the for the past number of years it is that we each learn differently. Some of us need the structure of a traditional college, others need a good online program, and some of us (like myself) just need to be unleashed with the material and the criteria to complete the class. There are educational options for everyone out there... all you have to do is look in the right place.

Western Governors University is the only university accredited by all four regional accredidation institutions - this has something to do with the fact that WGU was founded by 19 former governors of states in the west. It was founded as a non-profit university and that is why they can offer what they do for such an affordable price.

It has been 5, almost 6, months since I started with WGU and by the 12th of July I will have completed 103 credits to complete my Bachelors degree here. 103 credits going by the cost of credits at the University of Phoenix when I worked there would be: 103 * $295 = $30,385.

At WGU that same 103 credits, because I completed it within a six month period, cost me less than $3,000. That is a little difference... and a cost savings of over $27,000. If anyone has any questions please feel free to post a comment or email me directly. I have finally found an educational institution that teaches in a way that facilitates my learning and I pray that we all can do the same.

Hearing Inspiration

What is it about inspiration... why does it call to us in its own way and in its own time... it seems that for each of us it whispers differently - that we may hear - and yet at the same time it whispers the same message over and over again. Why do some hear the whispers of the sacred wind while others march resolutely through life? Tonight after following the call which came to me upon the wind I had the occasion to speak with a young man who has been through much hardship in his life. I was blessed to watch as his eyes lit up when he shared some of the awakenings he has had recently, which have come to him upon the sacred wind. He asked me why people don't hear the whisperings and see the visions? "Sometimes we are not listening..." I told him.

We shared poetry back and forth - not anything that we composed ourselves but the words which called to our hearts and came to us upon the wind, so to speak. In this poetry of the soul there was no editing or proofreading - the poems were complete and whole, from beginning to end... beautiful in every word. As he shared his poetry I could not identify a word I would have changed for the words he spoke came not only from his heart but seemed to come from mine as well. The sentiments of his poetry touched me and were true for my experience as well.

Those things which come to us upon the wind are truth... truth imparted to us because we were listening and because we were ready to receive it. The way I know something has come to me upon the wind is that it has full meaning, it is alive, it is complete and it comes - many times - out of context as a sudden thought or vision...

The imagery of the wind is a universal picture that we can all draw on at different times in our lives in order to explain those moments, when for lack of a better term, we simply feel something and according to that feeling. The result of such action is extraordinary moments in life - sometimes avoiding hardship and sometimes passing through it - but a true principle is learned in listening to the wind and the calling which comes to us upon it... magic.

Magical moments in life are those which touch and mark us deeply and are accompanied by feelings of extreme joy, happiness, and gratitude. It is at such moments we are filled with love for all around us. It is at such moments we have become one with the sacred wind and we too inspire all those around us... it is in our handshake, it is in our walk, it is in our smile, it is in our way of being...

Living a life where we walk hand in hand with the sacred wind is to walk a magical life - to know that each moment, each hardship, each challenge, has its equal or greater blessing. The pain of birth is swept away in the joy of cultivating life... the hardship of addiction is drowned in the brotherhood of recovery... the depression of death is surmounted in the appreciation of each moment we are alive.

Today I was reminded again of my mortality, my weakness, and the callings which come to me upon the wind. At times I feel that I cannot do the things I feel called to do... at other times I feel more than up to the task! Today I have felt a little bit of both, inspired one moment and overwhelmed the next. I ask each of you to ponder a question - where do you feel the calling of the wind? Where can you hear its message to you? What actions do you engage in on a regular basis which invite the silence necessary to hear the words carried on the wind.

There is an old legend which speaks of the words carried on the wind. Every word we speak is heard by the wind and kept in its bosom... all the words we let escape our lips, for good or ill. If we listen we can hear the history of the past and of all the peoples of the world... although all things may be heard - it is the truths which the wind holds most dear and should we seek them, and prepare ourselves to hear them, the sacred wind will whisper them in our ear... as we prepare ourselves so shall we experience the world.