My family has a cabin in Blowing Rock and so I grew up summers driving by Appalachian State. After I got my undergrad degree, my mom said, "Well, why don’t you look into Appalachian’s I/O program?" It turns out that Appalachian has one of the top master’s programs for I/O in the nation. And my expectations have been exceeded above and beyond anything I could have hoped for.

Having received my undergrad degree from a 45,000-student university and having experienced very large class sizes, Appalachian is such a nice change. It just seems to be the culture of this university that the professors are really willing to talk with undergraduates and take time to do the little things.

I’m very pro-Walker College of Business — the professors are just amazing. One of my favorite professors takes a very proactive approach to making sure all of her students understand what’s going on in class. If I have questions, I’ve always been able to email or call my professors and ask, "What’s going on with this?" or "What should I do here?" They’re not just professors, they’re mentors.

And Walker College staff members always have been willing to help anytime I’ve ever needed anything. They’ve been absolutely fabulous. It may sound cheesy but I really feel like this is just one big family — like everybody’s on the same page here. Everyone here loves Appalachian. I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about the university.

Although my faculty advisor … for the I/O-HRM degree … is in the psychology department, I take the majority of my classes in Walker College and most of my professors are in the college's Department of Management. So I sort of consider myself a college of business student.

As a graduate student, I’ve had the opportunity to teach business students. It has been an interesting experience. I think I kind of have a different experience than other I/O-HRM grad students because they’re teaching psychology to freshman. I’m teaching business majors that are juniors and seniors. So, some of my students are actually a bit older than me. It’s been interesting teaching people that are pretty close to your age but also I think I enjoy the interaction more because they are juniors and seniors. They kind of have a handle on things. They’re bright and they’re fun.

If you are going to have a career in the field of human resource management, then you should be affiliated, in some way, with the Society for Human Resource Management. As part of your exit exam for the I/O-HRM degree, you have to pass a comprehensive professional human resources exam. You then need to re-take the exam every 5 years which, of course, nobody wants to do, or you can obtain continuing education requirements through SHRM.

SHRM is really just like any student professional society in that it provides a great way to network with HR people. We have a lot of speakers, representing various areas of the business and consulting world, who share their experiences.