The culmination of Deb Wilson’s journey to completing a bachelor’s degree was as unusual as the path she took to achieve her goal.
“We rented a beach house here in South Carolina and had a graduation ceremony with relatives and friends coming from Idaho, Nevada, Texas, Oregon, Colorado and Pennsylvania,” she said. “My sister has her Ph.D. and was a professor at her university and wore all her regalia to perform the ceremony.
“My brother, who is an attorney, was the keynote speaker and had everyone in tears describing how our parents placed such an importance on education despite growing up in poverty and not having the ability to go to school themselves.”
Wilson graduated from Boise State University’s online Bachelor of Science in Imaging Sciences program in 2022, 38 years after she completed an associate degree.
“I had been trying to get a bachelor’s degree in anything since then,” she said. “Life happens, so when I found the online bachelor’s program at Boise State, a lot of the credits transferred from the other places I had attended.
“I had the associate degree in imaging sciences, so those credits transferred in. I didn’t have to take a lot of other classes. I had already taken the cross-sectional imaging and a lot of the other ones.”
Wilson no longer worked in the imaging sciences field when she enrolled in the bachelor’s degree program. She and her husband own Choice Gymnastics and teach the sport to kids in Summerville, South Carolina.
“Getting this degree has been a dream of mine since 1984,” she said. “It had been a very long and stressful two years with the death of my father and brother-in-law and ICU stays for my mother-in-law and father-in-law, as well as my hospitalizations and surgeries for kidney stones. Being able to celebrate something good was wonderful.”
Flipping the script
Wilson is from Reno, Nevada, and embarked on a career in the healthcare field after earning an associate degree from Boise State. She worked in healthcare from 1984 to 2004.
“I started my career in MRI,” she said. “I like seeing what people look like on the inside. I also grew up doing gymnastics. When we moved to South Carolina, my kids did gymnastics.
“There weren’t a lot of good places they could go, so we wanted to offer a different choice. We had a mid-life crisis and opened up our gym. Teaching gymnastics is fun but hard on your body.”
The flexibility of the online format was big for Wilson — especially since she lives in Goose Creek, South Carolina.
“It was very manageable,” she said. “I could take one or two classes at a time. At that time, my father was sick and actively dying. The professors were very nice when I contacted them and asked for an extra day to complete an assignment. They were really good about that.
“I had to go to Yuma, Arizona, and spend some time with him, but I could still do my classes and not have to physically be at Boise State University. That was my first time doing online classes. It was good. If I had any questions, I could post them on the message board or ask the professor. It was easy. The communication was good.”
Public Health was Wilson’s favorite course in the online Bachelor of Science in Imaging Sciences curriculum.
“You go out in the community and help people,” she said. “I liked the information and the way it was set up. It was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed my classes and found that they applied to me in real life despite not being in the medical field.”
Wilson especially enjoyed returning to the college atmosphere via the online program and interacting with her classmates and instructors.
“It’s very much worth it,” she said. “Doing the degree online is so easy. I had been out of school for a while. I am computer savvy, but the communication between the professors and the other students was great. There were people in the program from all over the place. Most of them were a lot younger than me.”
Achieving balance
Wilson kept her return to higher education under wraps until she was almost finished with the degree. She has two daughters, a physician’s assistant and a teacher, who both have master’s degrees.
“I kept it a secret that I was going to school just in case something happened and I wasn’t able to finish,” she said. “It made me feel so wonderful to be able to tell my family that I finally did it after 38 years of trying. They were excited.”
Now that she has completed her higher education journey, Wilson plans to enjoy life and continue travelling to her favorite locales — the Caribbean, Mexico and the Mediterranean — in her free time.
“I definitely got good value out of the program,” she said. “I know this probably sounds rather silly, but a degree isn’t just a piece of paper to put in a drawer; it means so much more to me than that.
“Getting this degree has been a dream of mine since 1984, and I thank Boise State University for offering this opportunity online.”
Learn more about the imaging sciences program
Earning an online Bachelor of Science in Imaging Sciences from Boise State University can open doors to new opportunities and a brighter future — and we’re here to support you every step of the way. Whether you’re exploring if an online degree is right for you or need help transferring credits, connecting with a student success coach is the perfect first step.
Ready to learn more? Attend one of our online information sessions or contact a student success coach today.