Abbey News

November 14, 2024 By radefolaju Leave a Comment

Should I get my master’s degree…? 6 Reasons we don’t take the leap

Have you considered going back to school for your master’s? Certainly, it can be a daunting prospect, but the truth is that most of the things that hold us back from the adventure of a graduate degree aren’t quite the deal-breakers we imagine…

In case you’re wondering whether or not to take the next step, here are the top six reasons we don’t pursue the higher education that could change our lives and careers.

We think…

It’s too expensive. By now we’re used to hearing about prohibitively expensive education and overwhelming burdens of student debt. However, not every program comes with this kind of cost. Belmont Abbey’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies conscientiously maintains affordable rates and meaningful financial aid options in order to ensure that its master’s programs remain accessible to young professionals.
I don’t have time. We all lead busy lives, so it can be difficult to see where a degree program might fit on a daily basis. Certainly, graduate studies require a time commitment, but Belmont Abbey master’s students find that the program’s flexible online structure not only presents manageable requirements but also strengthens the skills and strategies that bring new levels of fruitfulness to your time outside of coursework.
I won’t be able to balance my full-time job. While career and classes both require time and attention, Belmont Abbey’s flexible online graduate programs are designed for the full-time professional. The nature of a master’s degree, moreover, recognizes professional goals and networks as essential elements of the program. In fact, remaining actively engaged in a career throughout your graduate studies can actually help enrich and contextualize coursework by uniting it with consistent, hands-on experience. Ultimately, the Abbey’s graduate degrees aim to enhance career success and take you to the next level without demanding that you put your job or life on hold.
I won’t be able to balance my home life. Because we love our families and honor our responsibilities to them, we should evaluate the demands that our prospective studies might make on life at home. We know that creating personal and family balance during our graduate studies will present challenges like any meaningful commitment. And yet, graduates of Belmont Abbey’s master’s programs demonstrate time and again that the flexible nature of the online coursework and the responsive accessibility of professors help encourage and sustain successful balance. It’s also important to remember that your loved ones want to see you succeed and that your family, as they accompany you on this educational journey, can be a true source of strength.
It’s too late at this point. Whether you’re fresh out of college or bringing years of career experience to the decision, it’s never too late to pursue the personal excellence and increased expertise of a graduate degree. The benefits to your personal and professional development remain profoundly relevant at any stage of your career.
It’s just not worth it. There are many reasons why this last is a tempting but ultimately unsatisfactory conclusion. A graduate degree is not everyone’s calling, but if it’s yours, the benefits to your earning power, advancement, career satisfaction, personal development, and community relationships remain profound and substantial. In fact, to explore 10 reasons to complete your graduate degree, click here.

Although none of the above should prevent you from pursuing the transformative education to which you are called, going back to school will always present challenges and require the discipline of sacrifice. Just remember that education is an investment in the future – your own and your community’s – and when we respond to a genuine calling with generosity and love, the blessings are always greater than we can anticipate.

When you’re ready to take the next step, Belmont Abbey College is here to help. Explore our flexible, affordable online graduate degree programs and discover how a master’s could change your life and your career! Click here to check out our MBA, MSN, MS in Data Analytics, or MA programs in Classical and Liberal Education, Communication, or Leadership.

November 13, 2024 By radefolaju Leave a Comment

Is a Master’s Worth it?

Wondering why you should get a master’s degree? Explore these 10 reasons to take your education to the next level.

Getting your master’s can be a daunting prospect, especially for busy professionals seeking to maintain balance amid work, family, and personal commitments. It’s worth pausing to consider, however, what a graduate degree could mean for you – especially since assessing the benefits can help shed light on what you want from your career and your life as a whole.

So… if you are a working professional, what ARE the benefits of earning a master’s?

Ultimately, a master of arts or sciences empowers you to:

Further discern your calling by engaging meaningfully with an area of personal or professional interest. A degree program can clarify unexplored possibilities for growth within your chosen field, highlighting the industry needs and opportunities that invite your unique contribution . Graduate programs offer more opportunities to engage your field at the cutting edge as professors provide context and guide you in making original contributions to the academic and professional conversation. Even more than an undergraduate degree, graduate studies position you to recognize and embrace the possibilities of your field or discipline.
Increase your earning power. Full-time, 25-34 year old professionals with a master’s degree earn a 20% higher median salary than those whose highest level of education remains at the undergraduate level, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Completing your master’s qualifies you to climb the salary scale with greater confidence.
Learn from – and join – experts in your chosen field. Graduate professors combine education, training, and experience in a way that uniquely qualifies them to provide the formative guidance you need to excel both personally and professionally. They have dedicated their exceptional knowledge and skills to helping you achieve success, ultimately facilitating your growth toward new levels of collaboration in your discipline or field.
Alongside a verified standard of knowledge, skill, and critical thought, a master’s degree demonstrates your disciplined commitment to a field. A master’s signals not only that you are prepared for enhanced responsibilities and greater opportunities, but also that you are willing to embrace challenges, learn new skills, and develop your potential. Colleagues and supervisors recognize this, and the recognition transforms your professional landscape.
Expand your professional network through the connections and opportunities available within a college community. Even beyond hands-on learning, research, thesis development, and conferences, the institutional life of a college includes a community of alumni, professors, and peers who can provide support and invaluable connection. In terms of resources for higher education and advancement, graduate degree programs remain particularly attuned to the active professional life since by its nature it seeks to prepare serious and aspiring participants for meaningful work in their chosen fields.
Raise your promotion potential. Don’t let your education level keep you from career advancement, especially in an industry where education thresholds might otherwise curb your upward mobility or hold you back from the leadership only you can offer. A master’s degree demonstrates expertise that qualifies you to rise more quickly and confidently than you otherwise might have.
Learn together with other motivated seekers. Aside from the professional advantages of earning your master’s – which includes a network of peers aspiring to more profound collaboration in their fields – the personal benefits of a learning community shouldn’t be underestimated. Engaging in the shared pursuit of excellence and exploring the depths and challenges of a chosen field offer a basis for lasting friendships and community, especially at the graduate level, where conversations seek and support original contributions at the very forefront of a discipline or industry.
Open up new career opportunities. As you grow and develop both personally and professionally within a master’s program, the career opportunities open to you grow commensurately, providing new challenges and satisfactions that can increase your sense of accomplishment and overall well-being. A master’s degree embraces a wide new range of careers and levels of advancement that might otherwise remain out of reach.
Embrace your God-given potential. When you develop your capacities and gifts to their full potential, you participate in God’s creative work and embrace His will. Of course, formal education isn’t the only way to do this, but it can be a powerful means of responding to the vision of our Creator and taking on the vocation that is our particular calling in life. With the expertise of a master’s degree, you invite new possibilities of creative and active participation in God’s plan for your life.
Transform your community. Remember that embracing your calling benefits not just you but also your entire community. Your gifts transform the world and change the lives of those around you, so developing them through a graduate degree program has truly unimaginable effects. Find out what it can mean for you!

Consider investing in yourself, your career, and your community. Take the next step today by exploring Belmont Abbey’s flexible, affordable online graduate degree programs, whether our MBA, MSN, MS in Data Analytics, or MA programs in Classical and Liberal Education, Communication, or Leadership. Click here to learn more.

November 12, 2024 By radefolaju Leave a Comment

What can I do with a Master of Arts in Classical and Liberal Education?

Belmont Abbey College’s Master of Arts in Classical and Liberal Education (MACLE) provides essential formation for professionals in Classical K-12 education: whether teachers, administrators, curriculum and resource creators, or homeschooling network leaders.

If your calling lies in classical education, this flexible, affordable online degree program with a 10-12 month completion date offers personal and professional development uniquely capable of transforming your vocation.

As a classical K-12 teacher, you will develop the skills and understanding to inspire students with a shared love of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. By grounding yourself in a pedagogy specifically designed to engage students directly with the riches of the Great Books tradition, you will not only encourage active participation, critical and creative thinking, and thoughtful and genuine communication: you will change students’ lives.
As a classical K-12 administrator, you will learn how best to support classroom instructors and their students, cultivating an authentic community oriented toward learning. Fruitful classroom seminars are only possible where a safe, ordered, and healthy community is free to grow and to engage with the Good, so classical education requires men and women like you who address the essential needs of an academic institution with wisdom and prudence.
As a resource or curriculum creator, you will provide classical educators at all grade levels and across communities with renewed access to the timeless riches of the Western canon, facilitating profound encounters with the great conversation in which generations have engaged as they seek the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Curricular support extends this conversation and helps teachers to challenge their students, offer context, and explore further questions, scaffolding the skills by which students will discover ever more fully how to learn and engage.
As a leader in a homeschool network, you will bring the depths of the Great Books tradition into the first of all schools, the home, by providing the tools and support that parents and fellow educators need to fulfill the mission they have so generously embraced. By taking such direct and active roles in their children’s schooling and their community as a whole, homeschooling educators model the joyful responsibility of lifelong learning in pursuit of wisdom, and offering leadership in such a community entails a profound contribution to the good of our society and culture.

Belmont Abbey designed its Master of Arts in Classical and Liberal Education in collaboration with the CiRCE Institute, ICLE, and the Veterum Sapientia Institute, all leaders in the classical education movement who are committed to forming men and women like you in the best that liberal arts tradition has to offer. In addition to exploring the Trivium and Quadrivium as foundations of classical education, the MACLE candidate gains critical pedagogical training while engaging questions of faith and reason, poetry and philosophy, civic understanding, and the human condition.

As an educator invested in the mission of classical education, you will have the opportunity to more deeply pursue Truth, Goodness, and Beauty while making the fruits of this journey available to your students and colleagues – ultimately inspiring them in their own journeys and nourishing the active community of seekers that lies at the heart of classical and liberal education.

If you are an educator seeking to grow personally and professionally, consider what an MA in Classical and Liberal Education could mean for your calling. Click here to explore the possibilities.

November 9, 2024 By radefolaju Leave a Comment

Why Should I Complete My Degree?

Wondering why you should complete your degree? Explore these 10 reasons to go back to college.

Completing your degree can be a daunting prospect, especially for busy professionals seeking to maintain balance amid work, family, and personal commitments. It’s worth pausing to consider, however, what a bachelor’s could mean for you – especially since assessing the benefits can help shed light on what you want from your career and your life as a whole.

So… if you are a working professional, what ARE the benefits of completing your degree?

Ultimately, a bachelor of arts or sciences empowers you to:

Discern your calling by engaging meaningfully with an area of personal or professional interest. A degree program can clarify unexplored possibilities for growth within your chosen field, helping you to discover where an inquiry or an industry awaits the contribution only you can make.
Increase your earning power. Full-time professionals with a bachelor’s degree earn a substantially higher median salary than those whose highest level of education remains at the secondary level, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Learn from experts in your chosen field, men and women whose combined education, training, and experience uniquely qualify them to provide the formation and the guidance you need to excel both personally and professionally. A degree program provides unparalleled access to educators who have dedicated their exceptional knowledge and skills to helping you achieve success.
Alongside a verified standard of knowledge, skill, and critical thought, a college degree demonstrates your disciplined commitment to a field. A bachelor’s degree signals not only that you are prepared for enhanced responsibilities and greater opportunities, but also that you are willing to embrace challenges, learn new skills, and develop your potential. Colleagues and supervisors recognize this, and the recognition transforms your professional landscape.
Expand your professional network through the connections and opportunities available within a college community. Even beyond hands-on learning, internships, or conferences, the institutional life of a college includes a community of alumni, professors, and peers who can provide support and invaluable connection.
Raise your promotion potential. Don’t let an unfinished degree keep you from career advancement, especially in an industry where education thresholds might otherwise curb your upward mobility or hold you back from the leadership only you can offer.
Learn together with other motivated seekers. Aside from the professional advantages of completing your degree, the personal benefits of a learning community shouldn’t be underestimated. Engaging in the shared pursuit of excellence and exploring the depths and challenges of a chosen field offer a basis for lasting friendships and community.
Open up new career opportunities. As you grow and develop both personally and professionally within a degree program, the career opportunities open to you grow commensurately, providing new challenges and satisfactions that can increase your sense of accomplishment and overall well-being.
Embrace your God-given potential. When you develop your capacities and gifts to their full potential, you participate in God’s creative work and embrace His will. Of course, formal education isn’t the only way to do this, but it can be a powerful means of responding to the vision of our Creator and taking on the vocation that is our particular calling in life.
Transform your community. Remember that embracing your calling benefits not just you but also your entire community. Your gifts transform the world and change the lives of those around you, so developing them through a degree program has truly unimaginable effects.

Consider investing in yourself, your career, and your community. Take the next step today by exploring Belmont Abbey’s flexible, affordable online degree programs, whether Interdisciplinary Studies, RN to BSN, Business Management, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or Digital Marketing.

November 8, 2024 By Laura Schaffer Leave a Comment

Seek His Face.

Maybe it’s the family photo I’ve been using as my desktop background over the past few weeks, or maybe it’s this month’s Feast of All Saints… but I’ve been thinking about faces lately.

When we remember someone, either living or deceased, we usually picture their face, investing it with the memories and emotions associated with the particular person in our minds. But a face is also more than a symbol.

Arguably the most expressive part of us – and home to four of the five senses – a face draws our focus when we attend to another person: to listen, ask, or understand. In a sense, it incarnates a site of encounter; we might even call it sacramental. When I look into my brother or sister’s face, something is at work beyond just reading an expression or refining an image-memory. It is essential that this person in front of me is turned toward me as well: another person, vivid with distinctive selfhood, a Thou whose willingness to engage with me is, itself, a freely given gift. That the word “face” is both a noun and a verb seems particularly appropriate to the active and personal nature of the encounter it embodies.

So when the psalmist urges us to “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (Psalm 105:4), this verse points to something beautifully intimate in the way God invites us to relationship with Him. And the mystery of His ineffable tenderness only deepens when we think that God took on our humanity – bringing His face to us in the human face of Christ – so that we could approach Him, encountering Him freely and humanly within our finite capacities, both in Himself and in us: all those called to be Christ to one other. To “seek his face,” then, is neither an abstract nor a purely metaphorical call. Certainly we rejoice in the way God’s image echoes throughout His creation, but “seek[ing] His face” invites us to much more than this. It invites us to personal encounter.

When we orient ourselves freely toward His face, both within our souls and within the mystery of His incarnate and sacramental presence in the world, we respond to this invitation to active and expressive encounter. We seek the face of God each day in the sensory immediacy of the Blessed Sacrament; in the faces of our brothers and sisters, our loved ones; in the Word; and in honest and vulnerable prayer. We seek because we know our God not only comes to meet us but also makes it possible for us to engage with Him, even when His ways are unclear to us. He meets our gaze and does not turn away.

This weekend, as we conclude a hectic and polarizing election cycle, let’s ask for the grace to seek and love His face anew in our neighbor, our community, and in all the circumstances of our lives. May He fill our vision with the truth of His loving presence.