{"id":5036,"date":"2020-09-18T14:46:11","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T19:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/?p=5036"},"modified":"2021-08-18T11:30:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T16:30:55","slug":"graduate-student-takes-advantage-of-100-online-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/2020\/09\/18\/graduate-student-takes-advantage-of-100-online-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate student takes advantage of 100% online program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img class=\"wp-image-5085 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2020\/09\/Thro-Angela-2.jpg\" alt=\"Angela Thro\" width=\"217\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2020\/09\/Thro-Angela-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2020\/09\/Thro-Angela-2-400x600.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2020\/09\/Thro-Angela-2-600x900.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2020\/09\/Thro-Angela-2.jpg 617w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\" \/>Angela Thro was looking at masters programs at several universities when she connected with Dr. Susan Bashinski, dean of Missouri Western\u2019s Graduate School. Missouri Western had just the program she wanted \u2013 a masters in K-12 Cross-Categorical Special Education \u2013 and she will graduate December 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike most of the graduate students in that program, Thro is not a teacher; she is an occupational therapist for the Orchard Farm School District in St. Charles. Thro earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in therapy from Washington University in St. Louis in 1995, but as soon as she graduated, the profession moved to a master\u2019s degree requirement. The time never seemed right to work on that master\u2019s, so in 2017, she looked into other options and discovered the program at Missouri Western.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She said the coursework on autism in the SPED program was important to her, because so much of her caseload is working with special education students. When she was studying for her bachelor\u2019s degree, she said, she doesn\u2019t remember there being even one paragraph about autism in any of her textbooks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat I was doing was getting by, but now I understand so much more. The instructors help me see the whole child, and that\u2019s what matters,\u201d Thro said. \u201cI realized the connection was the most important, and my classes have taught me those skills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She said at first, she wasn\u2019t sure how she would do with the degree program being 100% online, but says it has worked out well. She has encouraged many teachers to look at Missouri Western\u2019s masters programs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve been thrilled,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was absolutely the best decision I could make.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Angela Thro was looking at masters programs at several universities when she connected with Dr. Susan Bashinski, dean of Missouri Western\u2019s Graduate School. Missouri Western had just the program she wanted \u2013 a masters in K-12 Cross-Categorical Special Education \u2013 and she will graduate December 2020. Unlike most of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5036"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5087,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5036\/revisions\/5087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}