Labrador Takes the Fast Track to a College Degree
WILMINGTON- Graduating from college is no easy task, whether you are an 18 year-old, fresh out of high school, or coming back to enhance a career. But Minerva Labrador decided to turn up the difficult setting, and is now graduating in December from University of Mount Olive with a degree in business administration.
Labrador chose an accelerated path through MOC. She had past experiences with college 30 years ago that didn’t end the way she planned. Currently, Labrador works at the Good Shepherd Center, where she is a case manager and housing specialist. The Center works to provide shelter for the homeless and to feed the hungry in the Cape Fear area. But her goals stretch beyond Good Shepherd, and she quickly realized that the long -term goal of working in a government organization would be severely hampered in the absence of a college degree.
Labrador didn’t want to spend three or four years completing her degree at this stage in her life. The one-night-a-week classes and the five week long courses at University of Mount Olive at Wilmington allowed Labrador to continue to work while earning her degree in an accelerated time frame. Incredibly, Labrador managed to complete 79 credits in only five semesters in order to complete her college degree. In one semester, she even tripled up on her classes to ensure she was on track to graduate.
“It has been quite the challenge trying to keep up with the course work. Let’s just say it has not been a walk in the park! But you have to want it in order to excel at it. This degree has been one of my long term goals.”
With the support of her family and boyfriend, Charles Hill, who also graduated from University of Mount Olive, Labrador has managed to succeed where she once could not.
“The accelerated program at MOC was the opportunity I needed to finish college. I started college many times before and never completed the program because I could not see the light at the end of tunnel. When I cross that stage I will be thinking ‘I did it! I survived the challenge.’ All of the sacrifice has been worth it!”
Labrador will be one of over 250 students to graduate from University of Mount Olive on Saturday, December 14 at 2 PM in Kornegay Arena.
University of Mount Olive is a private institution rooted in the liberal arts tradition with defining Christian values. The College, sponsored by the Convention of Original Free Will Baptists, has locations in Mount Olive, New Bern, Wilmington, Goldsboro, Research Triangle Park, Washington and Jacksonville. For more information, visit www.moc.edu.