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It’s loving the work you do – Claudia Achilles



Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning – It's loving the work you do

Begin or advance your career in instructional design, e-learning and performance improvement with this entirely online degree and certificates. The tools and experience earned throughout the program have provided confidence for Claudia Achilles.

Video Transcript

My name is Claudia Achilles, and I’m pursuing a Master’s of Science in Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning.

My OPWL degree has already been helping me. I’ve only been here three semesters and I’ve already been able to showcase the work that I’ve done in the e-learning and authoring course. And we have purchased the software to create e-learning courses for our underwriters.

My job title is an underwriter one and I work for SIF Idaho Workers Compensation. My responsibilities are to assess and analyze risk and then offer a solution to our customers. The value of higher education for me personally, is options, just general options. Growing up, I participated in a program called Upward Bound and their focus was on school and getting minority students into college.

Once I grasped on to the idea of like college is for me, then I just didn’t let it go. I wanted to be the person, I still want to be the person that helps organizations recognize that maybe they need a little bit more or to give a little bit more.

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning prepares students for learning and development careers

So how I describe Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning is like an organizational whisper. You figure out what’s happening, you figure out what the root cause of it all, and then you find the solution.

So my favorite project so far is working in Dr. Martinez’s learning strategy lab. We got to work on the Humentum Project and evaluate courses for a global nonprofit. It was real life experience. I was terrified. I didn’t know how to present my findings to a stakeholder. Going through that process with my colleagues, I didn’t feel like I was doing it alone. And then going through that process allowed me to find confidence to present findings to people in my organization.

When I started this program, I wondered a lot if I could do it because no one in my family has done this before. My mom and dad, they have a third grade level education. And so when my parents moved to the United States, they wanted us kids to have something better. So I know that I’m like trailblazing and it’s really exciting, but it’s terrifying at the same time.

What this means to me is that somebody somewhere else will recognize that there is a place for them here. And I just hope that they just know you belong here.