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Felicia Banks

Dr. Ryane Cheatham

31195-Spring 2023

January 30, 2023

By introduction, I am a Senior at Delaware State University and have struggled for

several years of obtaining my undergraduate degree. I have worked in Corporate America for

over a decade without disclosing my actual age and have waited for this semester for a very long

time. “The end of my undergrad career is near” is written on a posted note on my bedroom wall

reflecting my upcoming graduation in May 2023. A lot of transpired since the COVID pandemic

that has allowed to me reflect on missed opportunities and areas of improvement in retrospect to

make me a better person. I had been very successful climbing the corporate latter for years and

traveling the world because of my job duties. However, I feel like all of this time I was running

from my key dreams in pursuing my undergrad degree and even more so, by obtaining an

advanced degree such as a Master’s or PHD degree. Both of my parents and all of my siblings

have their undergrad through the traditional route and there was a time where I thought that

maybe finishing my education was not something I really needed or wanted to pursue. I was

heavily focused in my job duties to the point of exhaustion and through self-reflection realized

that I was overcompensating for not having my degree and feeling less than my colleagues who

were well educated from some of the best universities in America. What I find fascinating is that

during my Corporate America position, I always put forth 1000% in with 60 plus hour work

weeks and limited work life balance. To Further explain, every time I was promoted or took

another job opportunity, they always replaced me with 2 to 3 people. I know during those times,
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I should have pushed back and created more of a balance in my workload, but I think the

confidence that I now have wasn’t present in my career. I think one of the biggest opportunities

that I experienced what the issue of having writer’s block when sending a work email regardless

of the complexity of the email. Some of those triggers from the time when I was in high school

where I thought I wasn’t a good writer although I was relatively good at comprehension and

reading. I felt that at times, my verbal and written communications were not worthy of praise

which stemmed from adolescent years.

When I originally attended school at the age of 17 years old, I wasn’t really sure what my

interests were and felt a bit lost. I was passionate about helping others in the healthcare industry

but the direct correlation that was pushed to me was become a nurse which I was never fond of. I

also was great with finance and change management, so I leveraged my skills by focusing on

business management for my undergrad degree. Unfortunately, I was less engaged and didn’t

enjoy the curriculum and ultimately dropped out of school. During that time, I was already

working for a bank and began excelling in every position I was in. There was point however,

during the pandemic where the pressures of working from home and the extended hours took a

toll on me. I realized that I was just making it day by day and although I was great in my career,

it wasn’t something I was passionate about and didn’t think I was adding value that could truly

impact others. I began to rethink returning back to school and started reviewing the Delaware

State Liberal Studies major. I was very excited about studying Public Health as my concentration

while taking classes in criminal justice. It gave me breathing room to explore different

opportunities within those two programs while incorporating my 10 years of experience in

Banking and Compliance.

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I also had great experiences with my workload while studying Public Health at Delaware

State University. In my Epidemiology class, I was asked to write a research paper on the effects

of musical therapy and the benefits of mental health in clinical patients of all ages. I crafted

framework for every age group and the areas in which musical therapy allowed patients to de-

stress and improve their mood and cognitive behaviors that was beneficial for their everyday

lives. While I was researching this topic, I began using musical therapy to improve my time

management and focus on the tasks at hand. One of the techniques I used was using was simply

turning on classical music while completing assignments. Research has shown listening to

classical music helps improve your cognitive focus throughout the day. In my own experience, I

realized that while I was listening to this form of music, I would stay focused for longer periods

of time specifically to read, analyze, and carefully write my schoolwork assignments and even

job duties.

Post undergrad, I plan further pursue my master’s degree in Epidemiology focusing on

global health and disparities across lower socioeconomic communities. Given my experience in

Compliance and Banking as well as my studies in Public Health, I can further pursue regulatory

positions in Ethics working for federal U.S. agencies in the near future.