Former Students Featured at 10th Anniversary Event

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As a single divorced mother of hearing impaired teenage daughters living in central Arkansas, Dametrice Burke couldn’t come to Fayetteville to study for a degree in human resource development.

Instead, the University of Arkansas went to Burke, who commuted from Little Rock to distance education sites in Batesville and Pine Bluff for Friday night and Saturday morning classes. She earned a bachelor’s degree, graduating with senior scholar status from the College of Education and Health Professions. She has since completed a master’s degree in business administration from Harding University.

“I had a plan, and once I knew what I needed to do, I did not mind driving to Batesville, my hometown, which is over 100 miles away. That particular year, the program was not going to meet in Little Rock at the Pulaski Tech site, so I had to commute. Taking care of children and raising a family is not easy when you are doing it as a single parent, and especially children with special needs,” Burke said. “I’m working on my doctoral degree now through NOVA Southeastern University, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. I have a lot of determination and desire to achieve. I like to tell my story and have inspired others like myself to set out on the same journey to get a degree.”

When she started this journey, Burke worked as a benefits specialist for the Department of Information Systems, a division of state government. During the start of her second semester of the program, she was offered a position with another state agency, the Arkansas Transitional Employment Board, where she is currently employed. She has since received two promotions and is now the agency’s special projects manager. Burke gives credit to the university. Without the degree, she said, she would not have accomplished the same in such a short time.

William Campbell tells a similar story. The resident of Tillar, Ark., near McGehee, was not able to attend traditional college classes because of the need to work full time and care for his ill mother. He had started the process of entering a cohort at the University of Arkansas at Monticello College of Technology at McGehee when he ran across some information he had saved about the Fayetteville program years before.

“There was no way I could go into the classroom during the day,” Campbell said. “I had to be able to take classes on the weekend.”

He works for the state Department of Workforce Services, formerly the Employment Security Division, and the bachelor’s degree in human resource development he earned also earned him a promotion to local office manager at the agency’s Pine Bluff location. Receiving the degree also helped him in his service as vice president of the McGehee School Board and as a member of the board of directors of the Arkansas School Boards Association.

Like Burke, Campbell’s experience only whetted his appetite for higher education. He earned a master’s degree in vocational education and will start work on a doctoral degree this summer at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and through Capella University, an online university.

Truck driver Ricky Bryan of Mansfield, Ark., was sitting in a lobby at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith waiting to see an adviser when he picked up a brochure on the human resource development program. He had obtained an associate’s degree at a junior college in Poteau, Okla., and originally intended to pursue a bachelor’s degree there, but the program he was interested in had been discontinued.

After reading the brochure, “I thought, 'This will match my schedule just perfect,’” Bryan said. “A while back, I had asked an executive of O.K. Industries what he would do if he were to attend college now. He told me human resources was a great field and that perked my interest. So, wham, it hit me as I sat there. He didn’t steer me wrong.”

Bryan was promoted to director of vehicle safety and Department of Transportation compliance with the stipulation that he complete his bachelor’s degree.

The three received their degrees in May 2004 and will tell their success stories Friday, March 31, at the annual spring cohort weekend in Fayetteville. The gathering once each semester of students in the human resource development program may be one of the few times they ever step foot on the Fayetteville campus.

The program started in 1996 to accommodate adults who cannot leave their communities to attend the University of Arkansas to complete a baccalaureate degree. It is designed for adults in the work force with at least five years of work experience. A new cohort of students begins the two-year rotation each fall.

For half of the classes, students get together at one of eight host sites spanning the state for classes delivered from Fayetteville through distance technology. The rest of the classes are Web-based, allowing students to work at their own pace.

Prospective students must have completed or be very near completion of the university’s general studies requirements. The program provides marketable skills applicable to a wide range of training, supervisory and management positions.

A 10^th anniversary dinner celebration will begin at 6 p.m. Friday at the ballroom in the Arkansas Union. The program is expected to begin at about 6:30 p.m. Media are invited to attend the event and talk with current and former students and faculty members, some of whom will be available after the program for additional interviews.