Next they will pick up a Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences, a journey they start this summer. Sandra will serve as a Ph.D. student representative on Walden’s Academic Council, just as she did while in the bachelor’s and M.B.A. programs.

“Being around people with Ph.D.s and seeing what they’ve accomplished in their lives has been inspirational,” Sandra says. “Something else that motivates both of us is seeing Walden’s commitment to social change. Now we hope to help things change, too.”

“At Walden, the faculty members we’ve had have been excellent and supportive,” says Greg. “They have become more than instructors; they’re friends, and they also inspire us. They suggested that we continue into the M.B.A. program and toward the doctorate. They said ‘you have the ability and the capacity to handle it, so don’t stop.’”

Sandra earned her Associate of Arts online, but Greg got his at a campus-based school. He didn’t want to pursue his next degree by racing in traffic from work to school, only to get home after 10 p.m., so he called Walden after looking over information about the university that came for Sandra. He liked the unique specializations and concentrations, and in particular, that his Walden enrollment advisor made sure his program was the right fit.

The couple came at their degrees from different perspectives: Sandra wanted to help lead a new initiative at work; Greg sought to supplement and formalize his business management knowledge. “We were in the master’s program when my position in the banking industry was eliminated,” Greg says. “But because of my Walden education, I landed another position in three months and then a better one soon after that.”

Sandra sought her bachelor’s when she was on a team working to institute a knowledge management program where she worked. Now a desire to teach in higher education has grown out of her Walden experience, and she has left her government employer of 15 years. The idea of someday teaching also caught on with Greg because it offered a portable lifestyle. “We could travel, take laptops, and bring school along,” Greg says. “We thought, if we can travel while learning online, why can’t we teach online and move between climates?”

Now, in addition to their West Palm Beach, Fla., home, the couple owns a house in the Berkshires where they hike during school breaks as a getaway from their Florida schedule: Weekdays are mostly work and homework; weekends are mostly chores and errands. But they sandwich in a little fun here and there during school terms.

Their defining moment arrived the night they worked late to get a class project in on deadline—with Greg in a tux, Sandra in Versace, and their New Year’s Eve/20th anniversary dinner cruise reservation approaching. But their support of each other is generally less dramatic—she crosschecks him on APA style; he helps her with technical issues.

“We couldn’t have done it without one another,” Sandra says.

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