The regional route to success

Stacy Cesa Schindler, BSS ’01, BSC ’02, MA ’14, began her higher education journey as a traditional student—she went away to college, lived in the dorm, made friends. But when her family’s financial situation abruptly changed, she found herself at age 20 moving closer to home and working full time, but still determined to finish her degree.

Ohio University Zanesville—where, at the time, her mother, Kathleen O. Cesa, BSS ’00, was completing her own degree—made it possible for Schindler to finish her bachelor’s by way of night and weekend courses.

“It really was hard to be what was termed ‘a nontraditional student.’ I may have been a traditional student age, but I was working full time and trying to go to school full time,” she says.

Although Schindler’s life was no longer tracking with her friends from college, she was far from alone. Zanesville Campus academic advisor Carol Hoefler, BSED ’73, MED ’96, advised Schindler toward her bachelor’s degree in specialized studies.

“Carol was just really invested to make sure that the part of me that was transitioning into this young adult life was doing okay,” Schindler recalls. “She would take what I would say and help me synthesize my goals. What was my passion? What did I want to do?”

In many ways, Ohio University’s regional campuses were ahead of the curve when it came to flexible delivery of education. Schindler was able to take classes at any campus that fit her schedule, whether Zanesville or Athens or Lancaster, and she even had classes via video conferencing some 20 years before the word Zoom entered the national lexicon. She finished her BSS and—on advice from Communication Studies Professor Candice Thomas-Maddox—earned a communication studies degree with just one additional semester of courses.

“Those professors invested in me,” Schindler says from her office adorned with her OHIO diplomas.

Additionally, her regional campus experience reflected the main campus in that Schindler was able to get involved in student clubs. She became a charter member of L.E.A.D. (Leadership Enhancement Acquisition Delegation), an organization that focuses on developing leadership skills in students. A year’s worth of seminar topics included team building, event planning, business etiquette and more. Thomas-Maddox was the club advisor and remembers Schindler as having exceptional interpersonal communication skills even then, being instrumental in recruiting the second class of L.E.A.D. students.

Degrees in hand, Schindler continued to invest in her own career. She had successful stints at iconic Ohio companies including The Longaberger Company and L Brands. When it came time for Schindler to take the next step in her career, Thomas-Maddox told her about a new OHIO Online master’s program in communication studies. It was the catalyst Schindler says she needed—and a degree that paid off almost immediately.

“I did move to a new level, a director level, at a new company,” she says.

Today, Schindler is a financial advisor at Edward Jones in the Columbus metro area, using her OHIO degrees to help others in her community reach their goals.

“The reason I’m a good financial advisor is because I have a communication background. I know how to have a conversation. I know how to actively listen, and I know how to ask great questions,” she says. “Every conversation I have with a prospective client is all about goals.”

Often, those goals revolve around how to plan and pay for higher education—an investment that has paid off in spades for Schindler and inspired her to remain in contact with Thomas-Maddox and active with L.E.A.D. and on the Lancaster and Zanesville campuses.

“She never tells us no,” Thomas-Maddox says of Schindler’s dedication to her alma mater. “Can you speak at COMS Day? Can you come to a roundtable? Every single time, she doesn’t hesitate. She comes back … she’s that alum who stayed engaged.”

“I’m proud that I went to Zanesville. I’m proud that I went to Lancaster,” Schindler says. “Not only was I afforded the same quality of education and opportunities to be involved in my campuses and community, but I also had the flexibility to be able to work full time, developing my academic knowledge and my professional and life skills at the same time. Having a top-ranked school available to me where I was in my life was a catalyst to my success.”

This fall marks the 75^th anniversary of Ohio University’s first regional campuses. Look at the history of the University’s expanding presence in the Bobcat State and beyond and to read about the One OHIO strategic initiative that is strengthening campus and communities in purpose and partnership.