Veteran teacher rediscovers the joy of learning
Free, flexible coursework leads to new career inspiration.
Marilyn Ong found her passion in studying sustainability. Photo credit: Gabriela Hasbun
When Marilyn Ong of San Bruno, California, decided to resume her long-paused master’s degree, she was no stranger to the classroom. After 13 years of teaching math, she was interested in a new career that could use her expertise.
With Verizon Skill Forward, Ong discovered a wealth of free, online learning resources at her fingertips. Her first surprise while taking the courses was how she felt about data analytics, a topic she’d expected to enjoy. “Sometimes you think that you’re going to be really good at this one thing, but you’re not that interested [in it],” she explains.
Deciding to be brave and try new, unfamiliar topics, Ong started exploring. “Luckily because everything was offered for free, I decided to dig into sustainability—and circular economy to be specific—and it was so fascinating,” Ong says.
“Without Verizon I don’t think I would have realized learning is so much fun, because of the flexibility of just choosing whatever I want,” Ong says. “I could start a course and then if it still wasn’t meshing, I would stop and move on to the next course.”
In courses like Engineering Design for a Circular Economy, Strategic Communication for Sustainability Leaders, and Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy, Ong found a true passion for the topic. She has since earned 10 certificates through Verizon Skill Forward.
But Ong still had a goal of finishing her graduate degree in Instructional Design and Technology, which would allow her to create coursework for higher education and corporate settings, such as trainings. “I’m still passionate about education,” Ong explains.
So she found a way to incorporate her Verizon Skill Forward learnings into her master’s degree. “I’m pretty proud of the capstone project that I created, which is one module of a sustainability course that I was envisioning future high schoolers or college kids can use to increase their knowledge—making learning about sustainability as fun as possible but not watered down,” Ong says.
Today, having completed her degree, Ong hopes to continue to develop educational resources about sustainability with the knowledge she gained from both her graduate program and Verizon Skill Forward. “I’m hoping to combine everything and also transform that knowledge to be accessible for the younger generation,” Ong explains. “My new purpose is to keep learning and also help spread the joy of learning.”
Verizon has a goal of training 50,000 individuals for jobs of the future by 2030, offering technical and professional pathways to accelerate skill building for in-demand tech careers. In partnership with edX, the Verizon Skill Forward program offers tuition-free training to help people advance their careers and improve their economic mobility. Participants can access more than 250 courses spanning 84 unique professional certificate programs to pursue high growth jobs across the in-demand areas of AI, business, coding, communication, finance, IT and more. To sign up or learn more, visit Verizon Skill Forward. An individual user's experience may vary and results are not guaranteed.
