- Stephanie Norris
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Graduate School of Management and Technology
MyUMUC Story:
Stephanie Norris’s Touching Tribute to Her Mother
By Cheryl Balassone
Stephanie Norris will earn her MBA from UMUC in December 2008. Employed as a network analyst with Constellation Energy, Norris says she loves her job because it never gets monotonous and she is afforded frequent opportunities to apply her UMUC education in a real-world business environment. With exciting career aspirations and plans to pursue a PhD, her future is bright.
But things didn’t always look so bright for Norris. Growing up in eastern Baltimore City, positive aspirations were often ridiculed, not encouraged, she says. When Norris was thirteen, her mother—a single parent—decided to go to college in order to provide a better life for her three children. With no car, she endured long bus rides to attend classes and often studied until daybreak to complete her lessons. Says Norris, “I saw ambition. My mother wanted to give us a better life and she had the courage to persevere against all odds and when things weren’t going well.” Unknown to her mother, the example she set fueled her daughter’s desire to attend college and excel, too.
“My mother graduated when I was in my freshman year at Goucher College. I wanted to honor her with success. Instead, I failed,” says Norris. “As I looked at possible dismissal from Goucher, I thought about people who said I wasn't going to succeed. Then I thought about those long bus rides and realized that my mother did it with three kids and I had none...and I knew I had to get it right.” Norris went on to earn her BS in Information Systems from the University of Baltimore. At commencement, her mother’s pride and steadfast support again proved to be inspirational. Norris then decided to pursue her master’s degree, both for herself and in further homage to her mother.
Choosing to earn an MBA in order to blend her IT knowledge with a solid business background, creating a “double-edged sword” approach, Norris is able to add value to her employer, to her team and to her own level of professional knowledge. She says UMUC was also a great choice. “UMUC helped me achieve my goals by providing the depth and breadth of knowledge directly related to my major, instead of requiring lots of non-relevant prerequisites,” she says. “UMUC allows for outside-of-the-box thinking and great flexibility in scheduling for professionals. I saw this through the promotion of their online learning and the vast selection of majors in highly-respected fields . . . something that many higher learning institutions don't offer.”
Norris knows her mother is tremendously proud of her, and that pride is reciprocal. “It took my mother seven years to achieve her degree in early childhood development. She is now a teacher for Head Start and looking forward to becoming the school's administrator in the
fall. I'm SO proud of her!”
Norris is looking forward to her graduate school commencement ceremony and seeing her mother in the front row. “My memories of her long nights, helping her type papers, seeing her walk across the stage when she graduated, and watching her leave for her first day of her new career led me to achieve so much more,” says Norris. “Every 'B' I earned was to maintain my GPA, but every 'A' I achieved is for her.”
