My name is Sharron Morgan and I am a recent graduate from CSUN. I came here a couple years ago, so that would be 2006, and enrolled in the credential program for teaching. It was a two year program, and I completed that in May of 2008.
This is a career change for me, so being a teacher is relatively new, even though I am an older person. I have been in the work world for a number of years, and my first degree, bachelor of business, was from the University of Illinois many many years ago. I decided to get into teaching because I saw an ad in my magazine– Peace Corps Volunteer magazine — that was recruiting people to come teach in Los Angeles. People who had international experience. So I was intrigued by that and I made a phone call and there I was, pursued that path. So I learned that the state of California has a program for people who do not have a bachelor’s degree in the subject area that they want to teach, but have some knowledge, or a lot of knowledge, and that is through state tests that are offered. So the more I explored it the more I realized that this would be a path for me to pursue and that I had a lot to offer to the field. I moved to California and began that whole process of re-training myself and getting qualified to take the state exams, and so on. At the same time I knew I was going to need to be enrolled in a university’s intern program, so I contacted CSUN and there we were.
Once I found a job, once I got finished with the exams that I needed to pass and so on I needed to find a job, which I did. Then at the same time I needed to get enrolled in the university’s intern program. That all happened very quickly actually and I was very impressed with the staff that made that happen. I actually got a job offer about the late part of August of 2006. In fact, the credentialing program had already started, or the fall session for 2006 had already started by the time I contacted the faculty, but like I said I was only a couple weeks late and they were very gracious in getting it going and moving things right along. So one day I wasn’t in and the next day I was in, and so it was good.