通过教育提升自我

从一开始，有限的选择似乎就迫使鲍尔姐妹过着她们不希望过的生活。

But through love and commitment to each other, and by their own inner strengths, both found their way to 皇冠体育—ultimately leading to successful and satisfying careers.

“Our parents basically laid it out for us,” Angie (Bauer) Wisner ’02, ’13 MBA, said about the life she and her sister Kim Bauer ’15, were born into. “They said you can be a secretary, you can work in a factory, join the military or you can get married.”

“They weren’t real motivators of going to college,” Kim added.

安吉和金姆在爱荷华州的贝内特社区长大。

它位于爱荷华州东部的蒂普顿附近，年轻时人口不多，只有350人。 他们的父母努力工作养家； 他们的父亲是卡车司机，母亲在工厂工作。 对他们来说，接受大学教育是不可能的。

And, if circumstance was not hindrance enough, at just 20 months old, Angie’s arm was caught in a ringer washer. 医生认为他们必须截肢，但她的父亲拒绝了。

她的手臂活动受限，但她拒绝让事故放慢脚步。

高中毕业后，姐妹俩走上了不同的道路，但仍然保持着亲密的关系。

安吉获得了马斯卡廷社区学院的奖学金，在那里她于1991年完成了商业副学士学位。

在找到一份数据录入方面的工作后，她知道自己想回到学校，进一步发展自己的事业。

金想离开贝内特，所以她去了洛杉矶。 她在西海岸待了一年才搬回爱荷华州。 在旅游行业工作了几年之后，Kim开始想知道还有什么工作可以做。

“I owe a lot to [Angie] and her encourage­ment,” Kim said. “I went to school to be a travel professional, and that industry took a serious downturn. We would take walks and she would say, ‘Kim, do what I did. Start taking classes and take a chance.’”

“Start taking classes and take a chance,” said Wisner.

“Start taking classes and take a chance.”

That chance paid off in a big way for both Angie and Kim as they have climbed the ladder at Pearson, the world’s largest education company.

Kim已经在该公司工作了16年，现在是在线实施服务总监，帮助学校准备在线测试和大型评估测试。 She finished Mount Mercy’s Accelerated Program in 2015 studying business, human resource management and marketing.

她在培生集团工作了25年，目前担任企业风险管理总监。 她向伦敦培生（Pearson）分公司汇报工作，分析风险以确保公司成功。 她于2002年完成了商业专业的加速课程，并于2013年返回获得MBA学位。

“我希望每十年获得一个学位。 我想继续上学，继续学习。 让我的技能和知识保持新鲜，”威斯纳说。

Kim和Angie都相信，如果没有Mount Mercy，他们在培生的教育和职业生涯将与现在大不相同。

“Without the structure of the Accelerated Program, I would still be trying to finish my degree…. 现在我可以展望未来和其他愿望了。”

“Without the structure of the Accelerated Program, I would still be trying to finish my degree,” Kim said. “I would have to take courses that were during the day or during the week and less manageable. That would mean less time with family and children…. Now I can look toward the future and other aspirations.”