SPEAKER_01 0:00

If I could go back in time to before I started at Umpy, I would schedule a call with today's guest. Seriously. I discovered through our conversation that I could have leveled up my bachelor's degree with only one or two more classes. And I didn't know because I hadn't really discussed it with her. If you're considering going to Umpy, but you're just a little confused about all the transfer credits and the courses that you might need to take, you're definitely gonna want to tune into my conversation today with Christy. Christy Williams is the founder of Plotted Path, and she's an Umpy graduate who has uh successfully helped uh hundreds, and I mean hundreds, of students map out their degree journey. If you've checked out the Umpy subreddit or the Discord, you might have seen Christy in there answering questions, helping people tweak their degree path. And that's why I was so excited to speak to her today, because I think she's got the inside scoop on what courses to take to get through Umpy quickly and efficiently. In our conversation, we talked about her experience as an Umpy student, how she helps students plan their degrees, and how just a few minor tweaks can mean adding one or even two more minors to your degree with barely any additional work. If that sounds interesting, let's get into the conversation. I'm just gonna jump right in with my first question, which is so many people listening, I think, are considering Umpy, but they're just not really sure if it's right for them. So what was your big sort of aha moment where you realized this is what I should be doing? This is the school I should be going to.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah, I the reason I loved Umpy is because it's part of a larger state system, which I think is really important in this sort of day and age of higher education to be associated with a school that has a strong reputation even in their local community. And so that was a big driver for me. And then just really understanding why they deliver the Your Pace program. Um, I got the honor of visiting Presque Isle earlier uh this spring in May and going to the commencement ceremony. And it's a really small town. So imagine trying to attract a student body to a small town really close to the Canadian border. Yeah. Uh when school is in session in the winter, it makes it a little bit difficult to market that as a really exciting opportunity. So I think for me, once I understood the driver behind why UMPI delivers the Your Pace program, that was a big deal. And then beyond that, I love to write. So being able to really put my own touch on things and show how I received the information I was learning and demonstrate my actual knowledge was a huge driver for me. Uh, I have ADHD and I am really good at the things I'm really good at and dread the things I dread very, very strongly. So for me, yes, yeah. Thinking about, oh gosh, am I gonna have to take an assessment and what if I forget everything? And what if it's a busy day at work and I'm distracted by my dogs barking or my kids coming into the room, those things were just like non-starters at the end of the day. And I have my professional and human resources certification, and I had to do that through proctored testing. And I actually went to a test facility because I was so nervous about all of those things. So I couldn't imagine having to go to an actual facility for proctoring every single time I needed to take an exam. And for that reason alone, Young PI was the right choice for me. And I know people say umpy. I work in higher ed tech full-time as an HR leader, and I'm so used to the literal letter acronyms. We very rarely call a school by its sort of like local nickname or abbreviated nickname. Uh, so I often say um pi. That doesn't mean I don't know that others say umpie. Uh, we'll probably use them interchangeably in this interview.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

I will do my best to say um pi for at least the rest of this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

It's okay. It won't confuse me. It might confuse someone else, but now that we've covered that, I think we'll be good.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah. So stepping back a little further, even, how did you make the decision to go back to school? Yeah. For me in your life.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

For me, it was I because I'm an HR leader and I've been able to really grow my career and through relationships and meeting the right people at the right times and them knowing me and seeing the way I deliver professionally, it's always been the way I've grown. And I started to get really nervous about three or four years ago as I took on the talent portion of my company more heavily. And then I'm in LinkedIn, I'm in LinkedIn Recruiter, I'm in applicant tracking systems, and I'm seeing the jobs I'm posting, the jobs others are posting, where it's like, you must have this degree, you must have that degree. And for me, I felt like if someone was looking at me on paper and they didn't know me and they didn't see how I deliver professionally, I was going to be up against a lot of folks with master's degrees. And someone on my team at that time was going back and doing their masters, and they did their masters in person at Cornell, which is incredible. And I'm was so delighted to be able to facilitate that opportunity. But that was not a reality for me. I have a family at home and a full-time job and a lot of other responsibilities. So for me, I was like, what is the fastest way? And I know that, you know, fast is relative to each person, but what is the fastest, quickest path to getting me into a master's program? And so I started naturally looking at WGU because it's so heavily advertised and a couple of other programs. And thankfully, through that, I stumbled upon UMPI one night on the Sophia Learning subreddit, and I just like lit up. I was like, this is it. I applied immediately. I was like already applying. I had done my rabbit hole dig until like one in the morning that night, and I felt like, yeah, this will work for me. And so I put myself on a pretty quick timeline to get all my prerequisite work done, to transfer in for the bachelor's, finish my bachelor's, and then moved on to my master's a couple of sessions after that.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Wow. You are, um, I I should preface this for everyone watching that you are the master of planning for UMPI. Um everybody uh on Reddit, uh, there's a Discord where people just uh rave about the work you do. So did you know that going in? Did you were you already sort of figuring out the credits then, or did you just apply and that's that?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

When I applied, I had already started some things at Sophia because I was thinking that I would attend WGU most likely. And I knew WGU roles were a little different. You know, I'll share that with this uh interview. They require that you have all of those credits done prior to starting at WGU. Uh UMPI does allow you to transfer in things along the way, though I was finished before I started. That was also a big driver. Like, oh, what if it's the holidays and I can't finish things in time? I I knew I had a little bit of flexibility to play with. I am a path of least resistance girl. Like the the quickest to the finish line is how I want to get there. And usually that involves me building some sort of scaffolding around what I'm doing to make sure that I can achieve that goal. And when I do that, I'm always thinking about how I can help other people. That's the common thread through my entire career, through my entire life. I'm a helper. I want to make sure that things are easy and clear and just the most direct path to the finish line for anyone who's absorbing anything that I'm putting out into the world. So as I was going through this, I joined Facebook groups. I was on the subreddit. And back then, and this was 2024, that wasn't that long ago, there weren't a lot of us. There were not a lot of owls who had done this and were really publicly posting a lot of information about it. And so I guess in a way, I saw an opportunity. And at the time, I didn't see it as a potential business opportunity. I just saw an opportunity to help people and make it really clear and give people access to higher education, which is a huge passion of mine. Um, so yeah, I just said, okay, well, I'm gonna put a spreadsheet together because that's always what I do to solve any problem I have. And then people were asking questions and I just knew the answers. I had already done all of this research myself, and I just felt uh selfish to hold that to myself. So I put out a really big free spreadsheet to folks to be able to use. And what I found over time is there were a lot of people that loved that free resource, but they might be coming in with credits from other universities and they didn't know how that would play into their overall goals. And I developed my business, um plotted path, because there was a need. You know, people are like, I don't want to have to wait for a transfer audit from the university to know. And I'm like, great, I can I can actually help you with that. I understand how these things are mapping. And and sure, maybe I'm not a hundred percent accurate all of the time, but I'm at least 90% accurate, I would say, on anyone's degree plan. And then the others, I'm very transparent. Like, hey, it could come in and cover this, it might not come in and cover that, though. So just know you may need to do this alternatively. But I try to get it as accurate as possible, even though there are a lot of moving pieces right now.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

I mean, with all the moving parts, I feel like you may be the one person who knows their system better than they do.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

You're the sometimes. Sometimes it does feel that way. And that's not a knock on them. You know, the advisors there are their job is to know the university. Their job is to know that this class at UMPI covers this requirement. And their job isn't to tell you what you could be transferring in from an ace platform like SophiaLearning Study.com. Um, that's not their job. And I am fully aware of that. And I'm grateful that I'm able to fill that gap and just give people some additional supports and resources to go and conquer these things prior to starting at the university, and then knowing exactly what they need to be doing at the university, because that is just as important. If you go in and you're like, I think I need this class or that class, you might end up taking things you didn't actually need or things that don't help you towards the actual degree that you're pursuing.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah. So for someone who's never really heard of degree planning, how do you explain your process? And is this only for people who already have credits and they're trying to finish up a degree, or is it also helpful for someone who's just starting from square one?

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Yeah, it's great for both. And I have two plans that work for either of those scenarios. I have um just my basic standard plan that's for the from scratch folks who want a really clear and more strategic pathway to getting their degree. I do have the free spreadsheet that I put out, which is I mean, I'm, you know, it's a helpful tool. It's a marketing tool. It brings people to me to do these more custom plans, but it's incredibly high level. It's, you know, general ed, the a couple of degrees, it doesn't encompass every degree because some are more commonly used than others, but it is very high level. And if you came to me and you wanted a degree from scratch, I would probably not just have you doing Sophia learning only, for example. I would say you could do some upper levels through Coursera certifications. And then you've both obtained a certification as well as college credits. And I get a lot more strategic in the one-to-one. And then for my folks that need the pro plan, um, my pro plan really covers all of those credits that you might be transferring in. And I I want to say this people get really in their heads about not finishing college. And I at this point, you do not need to be nervous about that or, you know, nervous about the fact that you feel behind your peers. Like that is just your own imposter syndrome talking, truly. There are so many people, like you and I, Melanie, who decided to go back. They had credits from five or six different schools and all of these, and I don't want to call them failed attempts, but attempts that got interrupted by life is really what happens for most people. They started college and then they had to go get a job, and that job paid well, and they just decided to stay on that track, or they started and um in the military and they have a ton of military credits, but they don't know how to translate that into a degree. So those are the folks that I really love helping on the pro plan because they they do have a baseline knowledge of what it's like to go to school. Um, but going to UNPI is different than going and sitting in a classroom, you know, multiple hours a week and trying to figure out when you're gonna schedule and finish your exam and all of those things. So it's it's just a much different approach. So in the pro plan, it's I would call it kind of like a pseudo-advisor. I do not work for the university, but I do understand the university and how the university works. So it's really like a helpful extra voice to have in the process. So you're both getting a plan as well as a person who you can come to if something feels misaligned or something doesn't quite feel right, or maybe your advisor mentioned you need this class, and you're like, well, Chrissy didn't say that I would need that class. And um, sometimes it's just they put the plans in the wrong order or they put your minors in uh different order than we had originally planned for. And it's just a quick change, and then everything's kind of back on track.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

So amazing. You now, so you've talked uh a little bit about credits, uh, Clep, uh, Coursera, military credits. There are so many options. But I think some people come to this and they they are interested in the school, but they didn't even realize that there are opportunities to earn credits before they start or or even while they're doing it, uh in this case of UMPI. So what are what are some of the options that people have in that area?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah, there are there are a lot of options. So, of course, if you're coming to UMPI and you already have prior college, that's wonderful. As long as you had a C minus or better and a course from an accredited school, regionally accredited university, community college, um, you know, or local college, those credits almost definitely are going to transfer in. Uh, there are a few exceptions. Some foundations level English or math may not transfer in because it's not college level, right? It's a more of a foundations level. But for the most part, for the grand majority of credits, they're going to come in. And it doesn't matter how old they are. And that's another thing that people are like, oh, my credits are from 20 years ago. That's okay. They'll still accept them. Uh that said, when they come in, they may not cover the requirements needed for your degree in the ways that you need them to. So it might come in as just selective credits. And I see that pretty frequently, especially with military credits. Uh, but UMPI is very friendly with ACE. Um, so the American Council on Education has a crediting body that looks at the credits from a bunch of different vendors. Sophia Learning, Study.com, Coursera, um, UPI Study is a newer one that's kind of popped up on my radar recently, uh, straighter line. And then the military's credits, so the joint service transcript also runs through ACE for their crediting body. So there are a lot of different places that you can go and obtain some credits prior to starting UMPI from. And a lot of us did 90 credits before starting UMPI or more. There's no cap. There's no cap. You could transfer as many credits as you want. Uh, there's no cap to how many you transfer in. So sometimes, you know, I have folks that get really creative and they say, oh, well, if I did study.com, I could take one class at UMPI and everything else at study.com for a psychology minor, for example. So they might end up transferring in 120 or 130 credits because they want to be able to obtain some additional minors throughout their path. Uh yeah, that I mean, that's really it. Like there are so many different ways and places. CLEP exams, another way that you could do it, you can go to modernstates.org, get a free voucher to take the CLEP exam. You could cover your English one and two with one exam. There are math and history and some science credits, and just a lot of different ways that you can package your plan um, both before starting and at the university, to really alleviate the time and the and the financial spend. Um, because these these are all self-paced. Uh, anything that you would be doing through these, they're they're going to be self-paced.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

You pointed out a great distinction there. Uh, and it's something that I ran into when I was starting at UMPI, which is that I had a lot of credits, probably close to enough to graduate uh or to finish a degree. Um, but when they transferred in, I was missing some of those core electives. And so by using your spreadsheet and planning, I was able to just fill in some of the gaps using Sophia before I started. So I needed a science. I didn't have a science. I had enough credits, but I just didn't have that specific credit I needed. And so those, especially the gen ed courses are great to fill in before you get there.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yes, they really are. And, you know, there are some shifts and changes that UMPI is implementing to align their online course curriculums to their on-campus curriculums. And, you know, that always scares people at first. But the truth is, like they're doing it for the greater good. If an advisor only needs to understand how one layout of a Bachelor of Business Administration runs, or how one layout of a business, um, a Bachelor of Arts and Accounting runs, that makes their job easier, which means it's going to be a lot clearer for you too, what you need to take and where you need to take things. So coming this fall, there are some changes, and this is would be fall of 2026. There are some changes to the general ed lineup. They're very positive changes, actually. You don't actually have to do a language anymore, which is unusual deterrent. Everyone just dreads taking Spanish or French over at Sophia. But like I promise, if I got through it, you can get through it. I kind of sound like Peggy Hill from King of the Hill speaking Spanish with my southern accent. But, you know, I there are I like the new way that the general ed is laid out because it gives you a lot more choice. You can say, do you want to take American government or do you want to take psychology? That's your choice. Um, do you want to take US history or do you want to take sociology? There are different things that can fulfill different areas. The even better part about it is the way that the new general ed is laid out, it actually aligns more to what I typically see coming in from someone who has already done a couple of years at another college. So, you know, if you're at a community college, for example, you have a lot of options to fulfill whatever your humanities requirement would be or your history requirement, et cetera. So I do like the new way it's laid out. Uh anytime there's change, people get a little bit apprehensive and nervous that it's gonna impact them. I think the university has done a really good job of staggering the changes. We could work a little bit more on the proactive communication piece, but um I do my best to kind of keep up to date on things and keep people in the loop as they're developing out their plan with me. So they know, like, hey, if you start after this date, you're going to be subject to these changes. But if you start before this date, this plan is good, it's concrete, go for it.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Yeah. Yeah. I think even with all of this planning, people still sometimes get stuck. So, what are the things that you see happen most often that kind of catches students up and help maybe causes them to waste some time or money or just the momentum to keep going?

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yeah, I think for a lot of students, it's just not knowing. And I, as many folks as I work with on the front end of their degree, a lot of folks find me while they're already in their degree. And every time I think to myself, gosh, I wish you had talked to me six months ago. Because six months ago, we would have had all of this done before you ever started, and you wouldn't be in the middle of a session going, Wait, I have to do 20 classes? I thought I was only gonna have to do 10, because that is a huge misconception that you only have to do 10 classes at UMPI. Um, and that is true. That is the minimum requirement of courses that you have to do at the university. However, you also have to fulfill your degree requirements. And so what a lot of people miss is that key component. You must fulfill your general education, you must fulfill your specific degree requirements. Even if you're taking a Bachelor of Liberal Studies, which is a much lighter kind of create your own degree in a way, you still have to fulfill a minor. Sometimes it makes sense to fulfill two minors. I actually just talked to someone a couple of days ago. He had used my sheet to put his plan together for free, and he didn't consult me on the front end to build anything, which is fine. That's why it's out there. I want people to be able to use that resource. But he came to me and he told me all the classes he took. And I said, he was like, I have to do one more class, but I don't know what class I should do. Can I just send you a tip? Will you just look over this and make sure, just check behind me, essentially? And I said, Well, if you take this one class, you'll also have a project management minor. And you won't have to do any extra work. It's just one more class and you'll have that minor done. And he was like, I would have never known that. Like if he hadn't come to me, he would have never known that. And that's the thing I love about doing one-to-one is I can get a lot once I know your story and what your goals are and where you want to take this degree next, whether that's rolling up to a master's. There's a lot you could do an undergrad to roll up to the Master of Arts and Organizational Leadership or into the Master's Science and Business. I want to know those things when I can. And so I think that I I hate to say, I think the mistake people make is not talking to me. But I mean, it kind of is. I mean I know that that sounds terrible. And it's not because I'm full of myself at all. It's because I just understand it all well enough to make sure that you're saving yourself time and money at the end of the day. And I realize that there's a cost to my actual service, but I I try to keep that really affordable considering the amount of like time, money, and spend I'm going to save someone on the back end. Um and it does take my time. So it's not like I do this and I really can't do this in my sleep. I used to feel at a time before UMPI changed a bunch of things, like, oh yeah, I just I could just rattle it off. But no, I really do have to be intentional and really look through things and make sure that we're lining people up at the right times and and right places. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Look, there's a reason you're so busy. And I think, you know, you said you you uh feel like you could do it in your sleep. I imagine with all these, you have these inner workings of how everything fits together. I'm imagining you having dreams at night of people's college plans and shifting this over here and that over there.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

I I joke that it's like my daily New York Times crossword puzzle because it is like solving a puzzle to me. When someone sends me their transcripts, I take that information, I compare it to what it would transfer in at the university, and then I'm like mapping that back into a plan. And it's like, doop, move this here, move that there. Oh, and if you did this one more thing at study.com, you could have this minor as well. So I'm looking at it way more strategically than someone at the university is because they're looking at what degree did you tell us you want to take? And here's what you need to finish that. And of course, sometimes someone says, I just want the BBA and marketing, and I'm like, boop, boop, boop, here's what you need, you know. But I love when I get to be a little more strategic and say, yeah, you know, for two more classes, you could have this or that. And then it's their choice, of course, but yeah, um, it maps it out nicely.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

That's great. That's great. I now I'm wishing you and I had had more of a conversation before I started.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

How many minors did you leave on the table, Melanie?

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I only did one minor.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Oh, you definitely should have done two minors. Yeah, we could have. I my favorite plan to build is a Bachelor of Liberal Studies with a management and a project management minor, and the roll-ups to the Master of Arts and Organizational Leadership. Because for 10 classes at UMPI, you can have your both your BLS and the two minors done, as well as the three roll-ups to the masters if you decide to go into an M A L. So that that is, in my opinion, probably the fastest and um the fastest path for the most robust return. You know, you get a couple of minors in the mix, you get exposure to, I know you're in project management and have your PMP. I think everyone should have exposure to project management because it it touches every part of our lives, whether you're a parent or you're a coach or you're a full-time employee, you know, like all of these things that kind of come into these project management mentality, they can they can work for every job. Uh, there's not a job out there I can think of really that doesn't include some form of project management.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

So yeah. Yeah. Which makes it great when you're completing those classes and they're asking you to reflect on something in your life and to apply one of the techniques to your life.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

It's it's real life. It's real life. It is. And they're the courses in that particular curriculum, I think, are great because they do let you use your own personal experience and they let you kind of bring this back to something that might be impactful in your day-to-day. That's one of the reasons I really loved the Master of Arts and Organizational Leadership, is everything that I was doing in that, I was like, great, I need to do this project at work anyway. So I'm just going to use what I was going to do at work and kind of translate that into this uh area of study that I'm doing in my MALL. So it was it was like the best double dip ever for me when I did the math. Perfect. Yes. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

That's a good strategy. At this point, you've seen so many students, probably hundreds, uh, crossing the finish line at UMPI. Do you have a favorite success story? Maybe someone who thought that it was going to be impossible or that there was just no way they could do it.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

I have a couple of success stories that stand out to me. Um person, I had commented on someone's TikTok, and I've kind of intentionally not put out a lot of content on TikTok. I what I found is sometimes it doesn't bring me people who are really serious about this. They just think this is a fly by night solution to a problem, and it's not. It's a lot of work. And um, I think that's a big misconception for people that like this is an easy degree, and it's not an easy degree. You're still doing a tremendous amount of work. You're just taking a more streamlined approach to getting that work completed and doing things in more of a your your paced fashion. Um, so I think that's one big thing that happens. But I had someone who reached out to me who found me through a TikTok comment that I'd made. And this was last fall. And our first conversation was August 25th of last fall. And she was starting from scratch. And she's just said, if you tell me what I need to do, I will go and do it. And this is my full-time commitment through the spring of next year. That's, you know, she had some time off work, had received a severance package and an exit at her company, was uh, you know, pretty elevated individual in her in her career, and just said, this is going to hold me back. If I do not get this degree now, it's gonna hold me back. And I on August 25th made her plan, told her exactly what she needed to do. She started in the January session of this past session, so in 2026. And by mid-February, she had emailed me and said, I'm done. Like I've finished everything. She had done all of her pre-work at Sophia in about three months, um, transferred that all in and finished everything out. So it was actually, she's probably one of the folks who ran at the similar speed I did. Um, and and there are a few of us that are what I would call kind of speed runners, not in a way that is a negative way, but like that became our hyper focus. That became our primary focus. Uh, kids went with dad and did things instead of with mom and did things. You know, we shifted life around for a few months, but for a few months squeeze, and then to have a degree on the other end um is a really wonderful success story. And and and now she has resumed back to work. She has a really great new opportunity that she's um pursuing. And and we've stayed really close in contact following that because we work in a very similar space. And uh that one just like made me so proud because uh anyone can plan for me, but you have to go and work it, and you really do have to follow through. And that is the piece that is hard for some folks, and life is happening, and you know, we're a lot of us are adult learners and we are either in our careers or we're parents, or we have aging parents that we're caring for as well. I mean, I see this so commonly across this demographic that seems to find their way to me. And I I just encourage everyone to get in, hunker down, do it, because you can get through it really quickly if you just hunker down. And it's a it's a short-term uh, you know, stretch of yourself and of your focus to be able to get a really great reward at the end. So that's my that's one of the success stories. My other favorite success story, of course, is my daughter. But yes. Tell us about it. Yeah. So my daughter is a COVID high schooler and she graduated from high school in 2021. And it was just a really hard time because she started high school in a small program, and it was a lot more focused around what her interests were. And then as COVID happened, she had to move to remote and be a remote learner. She has um ADHD and she's also on the autism spectrum. And in some ways, that was a really positive thing, but in other ways it kind of meant she missed out on some of the social aspects of being a high schooler and all of those things. So for her, coming out of high school actually ended with a lot of burnout. She was trying to manage all of these things that she didn't really have the proper skill sets and, you know, outside of parental supports, didn't really have the right academic supports to do. And so she still graduated uh third of her class, which was very exciting for us as parents, but with a lot of burnout. And like, I don't want to go to college. I'm exhausted from what this high school experience felt like. And then we're in this post-COVID world of what's going on, what's happening next. And uh yeah, about a year and a half ago, I said, you know, I finished my degree, I finished my master's. I said, I think you need to like seriously consider this. And maybe it's not your final degree, it might just be the starting point to having a bachelor's so that you're able to, you know, build your build your own business, build a career, just have some of those foundational skill sets. And she loves psychology. Um, and she also is she has her own business. She has a pet sitting business that she's actually doing really well at. And so for me, I was like, why don't we just pair a Bachelor of Liberal Studies with Business Admin and Psychology? Those are areas of interest for you. And she buckled down at first, she drug her feet. It took a it took a lot of mom prodding her on the Sophia side of things, but then she she really did buckle down and she was able to finish her BLS with the two minors in one session, uh, which I will tell you as her mom, I did not think was going to be a reality. Sure. But as the person financing her degree, I yes, it's not easy for anyone, but as the person who was financing her degree, I said, you will be making this a reality. And she did. She did. She, I mean, she finished right to the wire. We were we were handing in drafts and uh finals, you know, right up at the draft dates and the final dates, but she did get through it. And um, I'm very, very proud of her. And now my youngest daughter is uh finishing up things at Sophia right now to she's gonna just do an AA for now. She wants to just get her associates and she's doing some other career development programs locally with community college. She really likes in-person. So um just because it works remote for everyone, for a lot of us, doesn't mean it works for everyone. And I try to be mindful of that that you know, she might take a different path than than I took or than her sister took.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Yeah, I mean, that's an important distinction. It's it's not for everyone. But I think with that story, you've kind of shown that it is possible, even with barriers that that might normally in a traditional school setting kind of stop someone or slow someone down.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Right. Yes. I think for my daughter, it was actually a good thing to be able to have the control over when she was working and when she was able to focus on her assignments because she does have her own business. She needed to be able to do school at night. You know, she was pet-sitting, so like, all right, the dogs are calmed down, the nightly routine's done. Now I'm gonna go work on school for four or five hours at nighttime and kind of get through what she needed to get through. And I'm really, I'm really proud of her. Honestly, it was such an interesting glimpse into how smart my kid is. You know, I was like, yeah, obviously, I'm her mom. So she's like, mom, does this look good? You know, any feedback. And honestly, I barely ever had feedback for her. Having gone through some of these classes that she was going through, but not having gone through a bunch of the others. I was like, actually, I think this is really good. Like, I think this is a four out of four. You did a really great job. And uh that was that was really fun to get to just see. You don't always see how academically inclined your children are. You know, you you see it in little glimpses, like, did they pass a test? But it was cool to see things that she created, a PowerPoint about animal behavior and all of these different things. It's just really, really neat.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

That's great. And then to top it all off, you both were at commencement ceremony together. We were. We were cool.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Yes. Um, I actually went back earlier this year and did an associate's degree just so I could walk in commencement with my daughter. And um, UMPI was so gracious, and I'm so grateful for the everyone at the university. They're amazing. Um, but they let me walk for all three of my degrees, which was really great.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

That's so nice. It's definitely one of the benefits of going to a smaller school. Well, Christy, this has been incredibly insightful. And I think probably a lot of people watching are a little bit more inspired, a little more excited to look into this kind of thing. For those who are thinking of taking that next step and maybe either working with you or learning more about UMPI, where's the best place for them to start?

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yes. So my website is the best place to start. Uh it's plotted, P-L-O-T-T-E-D path.com. And I do have a YouTube channel as well, which I'm sure you'll probably tag in the comments below. But it's Plotted Path as well. I have a lot of videos that I put out, and I will say, Melanie, I'm so inspired by you because I know I could be putting out so much more content, but I spend so much of my time. This is something that I do on the side, very part-time. Um, and I spend most of my time building plans, not building content. And I need to do a better job of the real work. Yeah, I'm doing the real work, yeah. Not talking, I'm not talking about the work, I'm doing the work. Um, but I I would love to at some point be able to share more stories of some of the successes that folks have had in in UMPI. And so my YouTube channel is uh a great starting point just with some videos and some context. My website, I have my free degree sheet on my website linked, and uh it's going through some updates right now as the university goes through some updates. Um, it is accurate, however, there are some pieces that will be changing this fall that I'll be continuing to update. And yeah, just my website is a great starting point. I'm very active in our UMPI Discord, which is linked in our UMPI subreddit. So if you're on Reddit, um it's just Reddit UMPI. And then if you're in the main page of the subreddit, you can find the link to our Discord. I am, I just want to say this. Nick, who runs the Discord, runs the Facebook group, runs the subreddit, is an alumni of UMPI. I there's not probably a person who I am more grateful for than Nick because he does so much to bring community around our student body, and especially those of us who are learning in this very worldly way where we're all spread out and scattered around the actual globe. I've helped people from probably every continent at this point. Uh, I I Nick is just a phenomenal person, and he is doing really amazing things to bring community around what we're doing here. And um in addition to that, I'm just so appreciative to everyone who has trusted me to do their degree. I I recognize that it does take trust to put this information into someone's hands and and see what they make of it. And I could not be more grateful for the folks who have used me, who have referred me, who tag me in on whatever platform we're using that day and say you need to talk to her. Like there's nothing that's more positive reinforcement in my life than someone referring someone else to me and and telling people to use my service. So thank you all so much. I really do appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

And thank you for everything you do. You uh thank you. Uh like you mentioned, it seems like every time the question of, you know, what do I do? How do I plan this? What what classes should I take, every time that comes up, the question is always talk to Christy, talk to Christy.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Plotted path, plotted path. And then it's sometimes funny when I comment on something as myself, like on Facebook, and then then so then like people under like talk to her, talk to her, talk to her. Like people don't always put together that like I am the human behind plotted path. Uh, but I do have a picture on my website now. So yeah. Hopefully that helps.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

That's great. Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. And uh thank you.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Yeah, and thank you for the work you're doing too, Melanie. This is it's super helpful for people to understand what to expect as they enter back into university or entering a university for the first time. So I'm so grateful for alumni like you and like I and Nick and uh Greg, who is uh he also helps a lot with some of the Reddits. Heather, I I could shout out so many names, but um, we just really have such an amazing alumni network. So um thank you for all you're doing too, Melanie.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

My pleasure. To recap, you can find Christy at plottedpath.com or under the username Plotted Path on Reddit. And I highly recommend checking out her free degree planning spreadsheet and all the resources that she has on her website or in her Reddit profile. You can find links to all of that in the YouTube description or in the podcast show notes. And if you're looking for help with the academic strategy side of things and balancing school with everything else you've got going on, you can check out more of my content here on the Degree Strategy channel and the Degree Strategy Podcast. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.