Spotlight: Student Commencement Speaker & Online Business Administration Degree Graduate Kevin Goehring
Kevin Goehring wouldn’t have predicted that he would earn an online business administration degree, speak at his college commencement, be on his way to obtaining a master’s degree and teaching as a full-time professor. In fact, as a child, he was told that education wasn’t his thing, and that he should forgo a college education.
Clearly, Goehring has defied expectations.
His path was wandering; after high school, he joined the Navy, where he took on the dual role of firefighter and welder. Determined to be offered a promotion to petty officer, he decided he would graduate as one of the top three people in his class. He was number two.
“For the first time in my life, I realized maybe I wasn’t so stupid,” Goehring says. “This gave me a taste for education.”
He took classes at a community college, and then enrolled in the aviation maintenance program at Sacramento City College. He got a job working on aircraft at a small airport, earned his pilot’s license, became a Designated Mechanic Examiner for the FAA and began teaching at his old aviation maintenance program.
In 2003, Goehring left aviation for the world of finance. Immersed in real estate, he decided to become a certified financial planner. However, there was just one problem — he needed an undergraduate degree. After extensive searching for online business degree options, Goehring chose NECB.
“I was looking for a school that would help me become a financial planner, so a business degree with a concentration in finance was enticing. The fact that NECB had been in existence since 1909 meant the school was established. The accreditation of NECB is the same body that accredited Harvard and MIT,” he explains.
Goehring says he is thrilled with his choice:
“There is a consistency and level of excellence that you do not get with other colleges,” he says.
With his online business administration degree in hand, Goehring has been accepted to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Master’s of Aviation program.
“If it wasn’t for my job in aviation, I would not have even thought twice about returning to NECB for my graduate degree,” he says.
Goehring will continue to sell real estate while working as a full-time professor at Sacramento City College and completing a graduate program for community college teachers.
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