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Campbell currently works in IT and compliance at Promise Technology, which provides agencies with tools that streamline operations and improve efficiency. After graduating from Towson 91ֱ�� in 2016 with her bachelor’s degree, she worked on the help desk at the ACLU of Maryland before being promoted to system administrator. She also served as cyber security analyst at the business-lending company Kapitus.

“I would definitely say my favorite part of attending UMGC has been the flexibility that it offered me, like the ability to wake up really early in the morning and get assignments done” Campbell said. “Being able to do things on my own terms and in my own time has definitely been super helpful.”

Campbell said that despite attending all online classes at UMGC, she connected with many professors and students. When a class assignment required her to pair up with a partner, Campbell sent an email to her classmates to join a Google group and help partner everyone. This encounter enabled her to make new friends with whom she stayed in touch throughout her master’s program.

“We were able to actually collaborate, not just on the group project but on several different projects for different classes, which was really cool,” Campbell said. “So, I feel like I made friends.”

Campbell said her professors and UMGC’s flexibility allowed her to study while also juggling the responsibilities of parenting a special needs child and navigating work.

“I would say my biggest inspiration to finishing would be my daughter,” Campbell said. “She's my world and she's my life. Sometimes I tell people, “Jacqueline is my boss. I work for her.”

Jacqueline was born with thoracic insufficiency syndrome, an umbrella term for a series of congenital abnormalities that require her to use her belly to breathe due to hypoplastic ribs and to be on high-flow oxygen. She has a feeding tube as well.

With Campbell’s dedication to her daughter and Jacqueline’s excellent palliative and hospice teams at Capital Caring Kids, the child has been stable and healthy the last two years with no hospitalizations.

Since Jacqueline is immunocompromised, Campbell tries not take her outside the home. Unfortunately, Jacqueline could not take part in Grad Walk on Dec. 14, but Campbell’s mother, father, sister and brother, were by her side.

Campbell said her experience provides lessons for other students.

“Be persistent, finish what you start and don't give up,” she said. “The cool thing about UMGC is that if you need to take a break, you can. But, you know, don't lose sight of the goal—and finish what you start.”