Meet AIU Students and Alumni
Meet John Williams
Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice
Getting It Done
Some might accuse John Williams of being a serial student. He graduated from AIU Dunwoody with his Bachelor's degree in Visual Communications in December 2004. Within a month, he had reenrolled in the MBA program in Health Care Management. He finished with that degree program in December 2005. Now he's back at AIU in the school's Criminal Justice program. John anticipates graduating with his second Bachelor's degree at the end of this year.
Oh, did we mention John is only 23? And that he was a "C" student in high school? And that he didn't even do a college prep track in high school, but was a student in vocational education?
"I was never the type to do homework or bookwork, but after I graduated from high school and worked with my dad for a few months, he made me go back to school."
John first started at an area art institute, but dropped out because, "I'm not a sitting-in-school-for-all-those-years kind of person." When John compared the price of the art institute with that of AIU, he saw they were similar and that he could get his Bachelor's degree much faster at AIU. "I was like, 'I need to go to AIU.'" So he did.and he just keeps going. His mom was the one to push him to get his Master's. Now she's got dreams of one day calling her son "Doctor."
John isn't staying in school to hide from the real world, though. While earning his Criminal Justice degree now, he's working full time at an Atlanta-based medical supply company. He started in the company's staging department, but in a few weeks will be moving up to an entry-level position in consulting. "I never could have gotten that job without my MBA."
Once John gets his degree in Criminal Justice, he has no plans to leave the Health Care field; after all, he is just beginning to rise up the ranks in that industry. Rather, he's looking at the Criminal Justice degree as something that will give him more options down the road in his career. "If you're qualified, you can always get into law enforcement. When I decide I want to do that, I'll be able to get right to it since I'll already have the degree."
John is the first person in his family to get a Master's degree. He has inspired his younger sister to get her Bachelor's degree. "I try to motivate a lot of people. When I tell people the degrees that I have and then how young I am and what my high school experience was like, they see that anything is possible." John says he's had at least seven friends enroll as students at AIU. "They see that I've been able to do it and what it's done for me and they want that for themselves."
"My dad always explained education as giving up four years of your life to set yourself up for the next 50 or so years. Just give three years of your life to higher education and you'll benefit from it for the rest of your life and have the rest of your life to play."
But that's assuming you can stop after four years. John plans on taking his mother's advice and going for his Ph.D. after graduating with his Criminal Justice degree.
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