"It's the last day of school, but it feels like the first."
That was Morgan Hezlep's opening line when she spoke, at special invitation, to the board of Florida's St. Leo University before graduating last May.
The beauty of the line is that it was Hezlep's first day on campus. She did her bachelor's degree work in computer information systems off-campus. Way off-campus, mostly on airplanes, in airport waiting rooms and from hotel rooms.
As a consultant with medical software maker Global Works Systems Inc., Hezlep traveled constantly. But she pined for a college degree. St. Leo was one of the first four-year universities to offer such an opportunity, through the University Alliance Online of Bisk Education Inc.
Hezlep, 31, took classes and queried teachers online. Most business hotels have online connections, she says. St. Leo/Bisk included CD-ROMs to load assignments into laptops while on airplanes. She's one of the people Bisk Education points out when talking about its program.
"Actually we've found that most of our students, at their expense, do attend their graduation on campus," said CEO Nathan Bisk.
Since University Alliance's beginnings in 1996, about 25,000 students have taken more than 100,000 courses. The alliance offers master's degrees through Regis University, bachelor's degrees through St. Leo and Jacksonville University and certification degrees through Villanova, the University of South Florida and, starting next year, Tulane.
Working with longtime brick-and-mortar schools is one way Bisk distinguishes itself from its main rival, the University of Phoenix Online.
Nathan Bisk has plans for his privately held company.
"We're lean, profitable and surely large enough to go public," said Bisk. "Maybe next year."
Copyright 2003 Investor's Business Daily
