Janna Rasmussen of Fort Atkinson, WI, has a confession.\u00a0 At age 47, she didn\u2019t go back to college to launch a new career, or even to fulfill a desire to earn her degree.\u00a0 She went back to college because of a steak dinner bet with her son.<\/p>\n
Janna was a locomotive engineer when her son, Patrick, graduated from high school. Patrick announced that he didn\u2019t need to go to college because his parents didn\u2019t, and they turned out just fine.\u00a0 That was enough for Janna.\u00a0 She made the decision that instant to return to school, and to be a role model for her four children.\u00a0 And she made a bet with her son:\u00a0 The first to drop out owed the other a steak dinner.<\/p>\n
Janna\u2019s job as a locomotive engineer with Union Pacific Railroad required her to travel for days at a time. She practically lived in hotels, and was on call 24\/7.\u00a0 Attending a traditional college campus was out of the question.\u00a0 Since she had always enjoyed science and ecology, Janna enrolled in the online Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Management program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.\u00a0 She turned her hotel room into a study hall, reading, doing her assignments, and participating in class discussions\u2014all online.<\/p>\n
The degree completion program that Janna chose is just one example of how UW-Extension is creating opportunities for Wisconsin workers to reach their educational goals while balancing work and family responsibilities.\u00a0 The online Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Management combines the strengths of four University of Wisconsin campuses\u2014UW-Parkside, UW-River Falls, UW-Stout and UW-Superior\u2014to craft a program that equips workers with the management skills needed to lead sustainable business initiatives.<\/p>\n
Demand has been so strong that, in addition to launching two online certificates in sustainability, UW-Extension has an online master\u2019s degree in the works. Both programs develop the competencies required for graduates to help businesses meet the Triple Bottom Line requirements of \u201cpeople, profit, and plant\u201d\u2014resulting in viable businesses that support vibrant communities within a healthy environment.<\/p>\n
Janna expects to graduate in August with a B.S. in Sustainable Management \u2026 and then go on to earn a master\u2019s degree in environmental management and adult education. Her goal is to expand sustainable tourism in Central America.\u00a0 As a volunteer in Costa Rica, she saw firsthand the need to protect the beautiful countryside in the face of an economic boom.\u00a0 \u201cEcotourism is the fastest growing sector of the tourism industry.\u00a0 It\u2019s so important to balance those pressures with preserving the environment,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
And what about that steak dinner bet? Janna\u2019s\u201cI-don\u2019t-need-college\u201d son graduated from music school and is pursuing his master\u2019s degree, and her daughter is a third-year nursing student.\u00a0 No one has collected a steak dinner, but the whole family is satisfying their appetite for learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Janna Rasmussen of Fort Atkinson, WI, has a confession.\u00a0 At age 47, she didn\u2019t go back to college to launch a new career, or even to fulfill a desire to earn her degree.\u00a0 She went back to college because of a steak dinner bet with her son. Janna was a locomotive engineer when her son, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":2646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","institution":[102,105,100,90,110],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-177","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-extension","institution-uw-parkside","institution-uw-river-falls","institution-uw-stout","institution-uw-superior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}