Valencia College Stories

Thriving online

Thanks to a flexible online class schedule and help from a Valencia College grant for student-parents, Natasha Hernandez is on track to earn her bachelor's degree in business.

— by Linda Shrieves

 

 

As a full-time mom, Natasha Hernandez has her hands full with two daughters, ages 3 and 7.

But she is determined to earn her degree, so after earning an Associate in Arts degree from Valencia College in May 2022, she transferred to the University of Central Florida.

She enrolled in UCF’s integrated business degree program, in hopes of working in the real estate business.

But Natasha, 29, was juggling a lot at both home and college. In addition to her daughters, she was also caring for her 101-year-old grandmother. Before long, the hours spent in class, caring for her family and commuting two hours each day to the UCF campus, left her drained and overwhelmed.

Natasha withdrew from UCF, and after her grandmother passed away in January 2023, she returned to Valencia College, where she enrolled in the college’s online Bachelor of Applied Science in Business and Occupational Leadership.

The online experience has been positive for her in many respects.

“With on-campus classes, you cannot miss a day,” says Natasha. “With online classwork, I can do classwork at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. If something’s going on with my daughter, I just close my laptop, take care of her, and then go right back onto my classes.

“On top of that, I have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In an in-person class, you can’t rewind the lecture. You can’t go back to rehear what was said. And you don’t want to take away from the other students, by raising your hand and saying, ‘Can you repeat that?’ she says. “But on my computer, I can rewind it five or six times, and there’s no judgment or guilt for doing so.”

 

 

While it took Natasha several years to earn her A.A., the flexibility of an online schedule and childcare subsidy from Valencia College’s CCAMPIS program has allowed Natasha to attend college on a full-time basis.

CCAMPIS (Child Care Access Means Parents in School) is a federal grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education that offers financial assistance to low-income parenting students in need of affordable, quality childcare services during their pursuit of post-secondary education.

“It helps to know that’s one less worry for me, knowing that my daughter is somewhere she’s getting good care, and that allows me to focus on school,” says Natasha. When she discovered that her daughter’s day-care provider wasn’t working on the child’s developmental speech delay, she talked to Valencia College’s CCAMPIS project director, Monica Potts.

“The moment I told Monica this, within 24 hours, I had a list of different providers.

Not only did she take care of that for me, shortly after, she did a follow-up with me,” says Natasha. “She’s been nothing but fantastic.”

This fall, Natasha is enrolled in 15 credit hours of online courses that will put her on track to earn her bachelor’s degree in December 2024. That’s a significant milestone that will greatly benefit her and her children.

“I love my online classes and love every professor I’ve had at Valencia. They’ve been nothing short of amazing,” she says. “I’ve even had professors help me at 10 o’clock at night.”