Online Graduate Travels from Arizona to RSU for the First Time

Geoffrey Reid
B.T. Applied Technology, 2008
Mesa, Ariz.

An accomplished engineer who works for the Intel Corporation, Geoffrey Reid was familiar with the RSU campus in the virtual sense. He has been an RSU Online student for the past two years. However, he had never physically visited RSU – or Oklahoma – until he participated in commencement last week.

Reid, 57, and his wife Jeri, made a special trip to Oklahoma so he could receive his diploma by hand.

“I’ve developed close relationships with my professors and fellow students online, but today I’ve finally been able to meet them in person,” he said, clad in cap and gown at the university’s 96th commencement ceremony.

Reid is an analog engineer at Intel and holds three U.S. patents for his work in developing packaging for computer chips. But his real dream was to return to the classroom – first as a student, and now that he’s received his diploma, as a teacher.

“I’ve always wanted to teach,” he said.

He hopes to teach electronics and emerging business practices at a community college.

His own emerging business is an Internet start-up company called storycasting.com, where book and film enthusiasts can become their own casting directors, selecting actors for film roles.

Asked about the irony of attending RSU while living in the backyard of one of the world’s biggest online education enterprises, in Phoenix, Reid says, “RSU had the programs I needed and I was really impressed with the quality.”

About the RSU Online program

Each year, more than 1,000 students take classes through the RSU Online program. Some students take online and “in-person” classes simultaneously, while other students earn their degrees entirely via the Internet. Students may complete four associate degrees and three bachelor’s degrees entirely online at RSU. RSU Online students live as close as Claremore – and as far away as Colorado, California, and overseas. RSU was the first university in Oklahoma to offer online degrees and is a national pioneer in online education. For more information about the RSU Online program, call (918) 343-7726 or 1-800-256-7511.