Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - Carl Chase wanted to work toward improving his chance at a better job, so he searched the Internet looking for a distance learning program that would be easy to enter, and offer a degree worth getting. That is when he found the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's distance learning program.

Chase, from Waupaca, graduated this spring with a master's in project management.

"I am not the type of person that can go [to class] once or twice a week and then not work on the class until the next week," Chase said. "[The on-line] method allowed me to stay on top of the courses daily."

Chase said that once he decided to make the commitment to furthering his education, other things in his life had to take a backseat.

"It was something I really wanted to do so my family supported me as best they could," said Chase.

Chase found that, besides working on his classes daily, keeping in contact with his classmates also helped him finish his degree.

"What really helped me was the weekly phone calls to one of my classmates, David," Chase said. "I had David in one of the first classes and we started having a weekly group phone call. In the next classes we were in the same group and we just spoke every week. Last semester we were in the same class, but different groups, and we still talked almost weekly."

With over 20 of experience in project management under him, Chase found that he did know a lot of the material. However, much of the information that he learned he was able to directly apply it to his work. Chase's current job title is director of facilities management.