{"id":142461,"date":"2021-05-26T13:33:55","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T23:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=142461"},"modified":"2021-07-20T16:43:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T02:43:04","slug":"motivated-student-fast-track-masters-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/26\/motivated-student-fast-track-masters-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa student motivated to pursue fast-track to a master\u2019s degree"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Victoria
Victoria Lee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Victoria Lee<\/strong> grew up in a Cantonese-speaking family in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. Her first two years in public school were spent in the English Language Learner program, a curriculum which accommodates students who come from non-English speaking homes. Lee\u2019s experience as a child ignited a passion to work in the English as a second language field, a goal that shaped her decision to major in Second Language Studies<\/a> at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate, Lee soon learned students could shave off a semester of graduate school through the Bachelor\u2019s and Master\u2019s (BAM) degree pathway<\/a>. BAM enables students to start on their master\u2019s during their senior year.<\/p>\n

BAM pioneer for Second Language Studies<\/h2>\n

In fall 2018, Lee was one of six students who entered the Second Language Studies\u2019 BAM pathway program. Currently, Second Language Studies is one of more than 20 areas of focus at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa where students can pursue a bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s expedited pathway.<\/p>\n

Lee understood the pathway program could pose challenges but knew her desire to teach academic English to university students abroad would require more than a bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

“The faculty and other colleagues in my department played big roles in my academic journey because they were very supportive of us, especially as we transitioned from being a BA<\/abbr> student to a MA<\/abbr> student,” she explained. “They were the ones that reminded us to compartmentalize our personal and academic lives because they understood how consuming graduate school could get and how burnt out we would be if we weren’t careful.”<\/p>\n

Support for new pathway<\/h2>\n

Second Language Studies Undergraduate Coordinator Kenton Harsch<\/strong> was a big support source for Lee.<\/p>\n

“Being able to double-count nine credits toward both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree means that a motivated student can move straight from their bachelor’s degree into a master’s degree, and in the end finish their master’s degree a semester earlier than they otherwise would be able to,” Harsch said. “That’s a significant saving of time and money, which is a great incentive for students.\u201d The nine double-counted credits are charged at the undergraduate tuition rate.<\/p>\n

This spring Lee graduated with her MA<\/abbr> specializing in English language education. She was awarded a Fulbright grant and will leave Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> in 2022 for South Korea to teach secondary students. Her loved ones are thrilled by her many accomplishments, and she is the first in her family to attend college. A long-term goal she hopes to strive for is pursuing a doctorate.<\/p>\n

This is an example of UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s goal of Enhancing Student Success<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victoria Lee entered the BAM degree pathway, which enables students to start on their master\u2019s during their senior year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1480,1466,1170,9],"class_list":["post-142461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-manoa-academic-innovation-engaged-learning","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-second-language-studies","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142461"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142487,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142461\/revisions\/142487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}