Rich Butcher, Jr. is in the MA Integrated Marketing Communication program, class of 2012. He shared his thoughts on going back to school for himself, and for his family.

I am not your average Emerson graduate student. I’m not saying I’m better than average, it’s just that I am a home-owning, kid-chauffeuring, forty-six year old, married father of three. I teach eight to ten-year-olds how to play baseball, football, and basketball. I drive my wife crazy because I canʼt sit still and one night a week in the fall and spring I drive one hour and fifteen minutes to the Boston Common parking garage, park my car for eleven bucks and order a large, classic Mexican burrito with chicken and guacamole at Boloco. Why would someone do this to themselves? Well, to further my education, of course.

Since completing my undergraduate degree, I have been a graphic designer, art director, high school teacher, and a digital printing press operator. Each place of employment offered me the chance to expand my knowledge to a certain extent but, I always had this feeling that I needed to do something more; something to help me feel confident in securing meaningful and financially rewarding work for the next twenty years.

There is one reason why I decided to go back to school (and one hundred reasons I chose Emerson, I’ll save that for another time). My kids are growing so quickly and I can see their first year of college approaching fast. I know that to provide the means for them to attend a higher education institution, I will have to acquire new skills and make myself more valuable in the marketplace until the youngest has completed college (at which point I will pack up the truck and find a nice little spot on some beach in South Carolina.)

The transition from working full time to working and attending Emerson has been exciting and challenging at the same time. It’s exciting because I am learning about the field of Integrated Marketing Communication from excellent professors while meeting fun and intelligent people from all over the planet. The challenging part has been organizing my time outside of school, trying to complete class assignments (individual and group) while working full time and volunteering as a youth sports coach in my community.

A career in any occupation is an ever-changing process. The skill set needed for a particular occupation evolves and technology changes. An Emerson education is part of a lifelong process that allows an individual to be ready for opportunities that present themselves as one moves along their chosen career path. Attending Emerson, one benefits not just from these opportunities, but from the network of professors and personal contacts you make while in the program.

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Rich Butcher Jr. received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University when MTV actually broadcasted music videos. He is in the Graduate Integrated Marketing Communication program at Emerson College while working full time at Dion Label Printing, Inc. located in Westfield, Massachusetts. Rich can be reached at richbutcherjr@gmail.com.

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