Bank branch manager completes 17-year college journey with BASTL degree and 4.0 GPA

Alicia Frederick’s (Enola, Pa.) journey to college graduate began more than 17 years ago with baking and pastry art classes at a school in Rhode Island. The journey will reach a climax on Saturday when she walks across the stage at Bloomsburg University to receive a bachelor of applied science in technical leadership (BASTL) with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

In between the start and end of her journey, she became a wife, mother, and leader in the corporate world, working for 15 years in banking, including the last 12 as a branch manager. The opportunity to graduate from BU first started with Frederick going back to school at Harrisburg Area Community College (HAAC).

“I started at HACC in 2006 when I was an assistant manager at a bank outside of the Harrisburg area,” said Frederick. “However, I stopped taking classes when I was promoted to branch manager and had a longer commute. Life got ahead of me, and I couldn’t make school a priority. Then in 2014, I took a new job closer to home at M&T Bank. My son was now in middle school, and I found that I could make school a priority again. It always bothered me that I hadn’t finished my degree although I spent more than two years in school.”

As a non-traditional student, Frederick juggled the typical problems of working all day and studying at night.

“You give up all of your ‘free’ time to focus on your education,” said Frederick. “Each semester, I carried 9-12 credits and worked through winter and summer semesters while at HACC and Bloomsburg to complete my degrees as quickly as possible. I graduated with a 3.87 at HACC and will graduate with a 4.0 at Bloomsburg. This means that every free night and weekend was spent on projects, papers, and discussion boards.”

“I also keep a busy schedule outside of my schoolwork,” Frederick added. “Depending on the time of year, I could also have up to three events in the evenings representing my employer. It was a challenge when trying to juggle all of those obligations and still get everything done. It was also challenging when I had group projects with traditional learners who wanted to meet during the day.”

Through all her challenges and headaches, did she never once regret putting herself through the process.

“Absolutely not,” said Frederick. “I knew that I had put so much time and effort into my schooling already; it would have been foolish not to finish. At 17 years of age, I started at Johnson and Wales University for baking and pastry arts and became homesick rather quickly. As you can imagine, not many of those credits carried over to my associate’s degree. However, with the credits I earned at HACC in my early 20’s, I was closer to finishing up my degree when I returned in 2015. Although it took me almost 14 years start to finish, it was incredibly important for me to finish it. Originally I didn’t intend to get my bachelor’s, but the opportunity at BU was too good to pass up.”

At Bloomsburg, the BASTL program was a perfect fit for Frederick.

“Since I had such a mix of credits, my degree from HACC was in business studies,” said Frederick. “Most universities require a student to take additional classes to have an associate degree in business management before it allows you to transfer. Bloomsburg allowed me the opportunity to transfer my existing degree without requiring me to take anything further. Also, all of my credits from Johnson and Wales transferred over as my electives. When it was all said I done, I only needed to complete 43 credits at Bloomsburg and one additional elective to complete my degree.”

For Frederick, the questions become what will she do next, and where does she want to end up.

“As a branch manager for 12 years, the next logical step is to be a regional retail manager or a business banking relationship manager at M&T,” Frederick continued. “But, I would love to work as a community relations manager where I can interact and assist non-profits and be involved in event planning. Volunteering and planning are both passions of mine.”

Whatever Frederick ultimately ends up doing, one thing is guaranteed, she will have savored the journey to get there.