In case you hadn't heard the news, this blog is to be the replace my previous blog titled "Lies of Lions." There are several reasons for the change, and you can read the full explanation in the last post of that blog by clicking this link.
I have recently made my attendance commitment to the University of West Georgia and their Master of Arts program in Psychology. Being accepted to such a program is a huge step in the direction I want my life to go. However, the next natural question that is perhaps just as big of a concern is; how to pay for graduate school? I want to give you guys some specifics about my career and educations plans before I prompt you for assistance.
In August of this year I will be enrolling in the Master's of Arts program in Psychology at the University of West Georgia. The program will take approximately 2 1/2 years to complete and will leave me with a Master of Arts degree in psychology, a one year practicum completes, and eligible to sit for the Georgia State (LPC) and National (NCC) licensing exams for counseling. I have chosen to attend the University of West Georgia because of its emphasis on humanistic and phenomenological psychology. To learn more about the program; I have provided a link to the University of West Georgia's Psychology webpage. If you would like to know more about what has led me to this point in my career, please read the post titled "Flourishing from Failure" in the Lies of Lions Blog (Link provided). In short my the initial drive more my career has been to take what I have learned from philosophy courses and practically convey its relevance to ever-day people that can benefit from its lessons; which are typically reserved from coffee-shop-small-talk, corporate think tanks, and "ivory tower" academics. This passion was further refined to a career in counseling as I began to read the works of Rollo May and Irvin D. Yalom. May is a fundamental figure in the world of humanistic psychology and Yalom is a contemporary pioneer of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy.
On to the "meat and potatoes" of this post. The title suggests that there is a way for you (my readers, friends, and family) to help me earn money for my education at no cost to you. Is this possible? Yes, but there is a bit of paper work involved. I am currently enrolled in a service offered by Sallie Mae (private student loan lender) called Upromise. Essentially Upromise has compiled a large list of participating retailers ranging from grocery stores to gas stations to online retailers who will contribute a portion (usually ranging from 1 - 5 percent) of your spendings to the beneficiary of your choice. There is no additional charge to contributor. They simply register an account at the Upromise website, list a beneficiary of their choice (hopefully myself, Austin Haedicke), register their existing credit card(s), and their rebate savings will automatically be distributed to my Upromise account. This really is a spectacular opportunity considering that the participants need only register their existing credit card (which may include a business credit card!) and need not apply for a specific Upromise credit card or change their spending habits or preferred retailers. Some participating contributors include Exxon Mobile, Krogers, Amazon.com, Avis, Holiday Inn, and many, many others. Currently the website lists over 750 participating merchants, restaurants, and travel agencies. I have provided a link to the list here. You can find out more information about how the program works at this link. If there is any other information that you require of me please post a comment with your email address and question and I'll return the answer and update this post accordingly.
If I were to individually solicit members, the email message you would receive from Upromise would be the following: Help me earn money for college with Upromise. Upromise members can get cash back for shopping online, dining out, and even booking travel through upromise.com. When you join my savings network, you can allocate all or a part of your Upromise earnings to me to save for college. Upromise partners with hundreds of participating companies, so there are lots of ways to earn every day. I hope you'll sign up today. It's free to join! If you would like to participate and would like a reminder to enroll please leave a comment to the tune of "Count me in at your.emailaddress@whatever.com" or "Please remind me at your.emailaddress@whatever.com"
To protect the privacy of those interested, you need not worry about having your private email address publicly displayed (at least for long). As soon as I receive the comment I will address the question in an update to this post or send you the requested reminder and immediately delete your comment from this blog post. I will also provide periodic updates detailing usage statistics throughout this process so that everyone can see how much their contributions are helping.
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