College For a Fifty Something: Can You Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?

I started working on my first college degree in 1988 at my five-year point in the U.S. Navy. Beginning the effort as an E-5, studying during the underway cycles and deployments of sea duty, the maintenance periods and duties of shore duty, and the advancements through the ranks over the years, I finished as a Chief Petty Officer receiving my Bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 1998. That year, the degree helped me advance once again to the rank of Senior Chief, one of my proudest moments. It also helped me to earn a commission as a Naval Officer in 1999, an interesting “jump” from Senior Chief to Ensign, USN. While I did start a Master’s Degree (MBA) in 1998, I didn’t finish it due to the professional demands on my time with my Navy advancements and promotions and thus halted my college education in 1999.

Through the years, I would convince myself that I did not really “need” more education because of the amount of learning that I undertook with the professional qualifications required of a Naval Officer. Qualifications as Naval Sea Systems Docking Officer, Nuclear Engineering Officer of the Watch, Officer of the Deck, and Surface Warfare Officer took up the “hard drive space” in my head - alleviating the desire for additional learning, so I did not return to college before retiring as a Commander in late 2017.

Once I was no longer on active duty, I had the benefit of reflection on life and my military service. I realized how much I truly enjoyed the challenge and experience of learning new things, or even just updating my knowledge of old ones. A desire to earn that graduate degree that I’d set down to rest so many years ago began to truly manifest for me.

In 2022, I started an online conversation with the Entertainment Business Master of Science (EBMS) Program Director, who gave me a multitude of points to consider and encouraged me to get started. It took nearly two years to get “life’s happenings” in proper order to take the plunge, and in April 2024, I began my mastery journey.

It was daunting at the start during the enrollment and matriculation period. I was not sure how this would go, with twenty-five years having elapsed since my last college course to the start of my program at Full Sail University. The only way to know is to jump in and try, so I did.

Now, to answer the question: can you teach an old dog new tricks? Why yes, I certainly think so! While a lot of what I experienced in my program represented a review of skills of concepts I had encountered earlier in my professional life, I must also say that a great deal of the knowledge was newly gleaned and very voraciously absorbed. The experience of seeing my (much younger) classmates excited to start their careers was invigorating as well.

You may notice that in the previous paragraph, I answered the subject question with a hearty “I certainly think so”. We won’t know for sure until the end of next month, March 2025 when I hopefully complete the program.

It’s looking pretty good from here that I will learn the last few “new tricks” and join the EBMS graduates of April 2025. And I still may not be done. A second Master’s degree, maybe?

Ah yes, lifelong learning…