Congratulations to UWG economics lecturer, Kim Holder on being named the 2017 UWG Employee of the Year! Kim received her B.S. in Economics from the University of West Georgia, followed by her M.A. in Economics from Georgia State University. She's actively engaged around campus, serving as an adviser for student organizations and a leader throughout the UWG community. Kim has recently received accolades for her National video competition, Rockonomix, which helps motivate student learning by using popular media to reinforce basic economic principles.
Before she was the Best of the West and resident Economics Queen, Kim was an adult learner balancing a family and online learning in order to complete her bachelor's degree. We're diving deep into the archives today to revisit Kim during her time as an eCore student.
*This story originally appeared on the USG eCore website prior to 2008.
“As a little girl I often dreamed about what I would ‘be’ when I grew up. It seemed that the world was full of so many possibilities that I wondered how anyone could choose just one!” So begins Kim Holder, eCore student at UWG, on how her dreams seemingly got lost along the way as “real life” took over. Childhood dreams of being a “schoolteacher” and/or a “veterinarian” seemed lost forever after marriage and two kids.
But choices were made along the way that Kim feels make her “fortunate” and “blessed.” All the possibilities that lay before her as a child and propelled her into college as a pre-med student logically led her to choose not just one “occupation” but several. The ones she chose were: wife, parent and stay-at-home mom.
Ten years later, after her personal dreams were safely tucked away like faded memories, several events caused them to re-surface. Kim watched her little boy embrace the possibility of being “a shark scientist one day and a steam train engineer the next.” The inner child of wonder and possibility in Kim was re-born. Later, after “something inside [her] had been stirred,” Kim recalls, “a friend mentioned online classes you could take through local Georgia Colleges, [so] I began to cautiously investigate and a little bit of hope crept in.”
Now since the fall of 2004, Kim is about to finish her ninth eCore class, all 100% online. “eCore allowed me to return to school without having to wait until my children were both in school full-time which was my original plan. Because of eCore I will graduate in 2008 instead of enrolling in 2008! I saved countless dollars in babysitting and gas monies for the 1 ½ hour daily commute to Carrollton from home. I was able to go to class in my pajamas after putting my kids to bed, and while sometimes it lasted until the wee hours of the morning, it’s hard to beat that kind of convenience.”
Kim sums up her experience so far by stating, “eCore gave me the hope to live my own dreams and to work towards what seemed, at times, to be an impossible goal.” And true to her childhood dreams of multiple possibilities, Kim is seeking a “B.S. in Economics with a double minor in Chemistry and Biology, as well as the requirements to apply to dental school.” eCore has not only helped give Kim the hope and tools needed to achieve her goals, but also a legacy she is passing down to her children. According to Kim, “…parenting is not so much telling your children what to do but living your life so they can see the path you leave behind.”
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