Student Story: Rebekah Pursued Dance and Got Her Degree
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Accelerated Pathways gives students the freedom to pursue their passions while pursuing their degree. Rebekah is proof of that. A ballerina, she decided to use our online courses to pursue college while dancing with the Atlanta Center for Ballet Education. This is her story:
“I was introduced to ballet when I was little. My mom took me to The Nutcracker when I was almost 3 years old and I just sat there, enraptured. I loved every minute of it. At the end I told my mom, ‘I want to be her,’ and I pointed to the girl on stage.”
“I always thought I would quit and move on to other things but as I grew, my love for ballet grew.”
Rebekah passionately pursued a career in dance, but she also wanted to get her undergraduate degree. Pearson Accelerated Pathways (at the time branded as College Plus) offered her a pathway to pursue her dreams while also getting a degree that was also important for her future.
“I was originally going to go to a 4-year university.” says Rebekah, “When I decided to pursue dance, I needed something that would be more flexible and something that would actually allow me to get life experience and job experience at the same time as getting my degree.”
“There is always that tension in the arts world, should I go to school, or should I go for it in my career,” explains Rebekah. “Because our careers are so short that oftentimes spending 4 years at an institution, you lose that precious time that you could be gaining job experience.”
Rebekah needed a solution for her college degree that was flexible and worked with her schedule. “One of my favorite things is the flexibility and how you can make it work around your schedule and make it work for you.” “While I was training, I would study in the mornings, and we would have class from 2-4. Then I would take a break and find some time to study, and we’d have classes and rehearsals in the evening from 5:30 to as late as 9 o’clock."
“I squeezed in school and ballet, and I didn’t get to do that much else but, it worked! I got my bachelor’s in communications in 18 months and while I was doing that I was also dancing and training at the Atlanta Ballet Center for Dance Education. I would never have been able to do that any other way.” "Ballet and dance can be used to communicate truth and to encourage people and build them up. It can invite the audience into a story that is bigger than their own.”