Earning a Degree: How Alum 马可·鲁伊斯 Achieved His Personal Goals

作为四个孩子的父亲, Human Resources and Product Manager at GameStop and full-time student working toward a 商业学位 at 德大学, Ruiz did not spend many hours walking or star gazing in 2018. 当时的生活 组成了一个微妙的舞蹈之间 工作和学习 for 15-hour days at GameStop’s corporate headquarters in Grapevine, Texas. 他每天早上7:45开始一天的工作.m. and stayed at his desk to complete class assignments long after his colleagues clocked out.

“I stayed until 1 or 2 in the morning sometimes,鲁伊斯说. “我星期一做了作业, Tuesday, Wednesday—sometimes Thursdays—then Friday and Sunday I dedicated to my family. But in order to do this, I had to stay very organized and disciplined.”

This meant sacrificing leisure activities—such as lounging around the house or playing video games—to follow a well-planned, regimented schedule that focused only on what Ruiz deemed most essential for success at that time: school, 工作与家庭. He 在线上课，这使他能够 制定灵活的时间表 这符合他繁忙的工作生活需求.

他说:“我不想撒谎——这很难。. “有时候我真想放弃. 但看看结果，这是值得的.”

Ruiz knew his hard work paid off the moment he graduated in November 2019. 除了完成一个目标之外，还要赢得他的荣誉 商业学位 专门从事 人力资源 without taking a semester off, he also fulfilled an important commitment to his family. Ruiz promised his mother, who passed before he graduated, that he would 获得大学学位.

Ruiz’s mother worked in landscaping to provide for their family. Although she never pursued a degree herself, she paved a path to education for her son.

“I lived in a very low-income neighborhood and grew up in a house that was about 600-700 square feet,他说.

Despite life circumstances, his mother still encouraged him to make good decisions. 引导他走上正确的道路, she tried something special: “She knew I loved to read, 所以她给我带了一堆漫画书,鲁伊斯说。, who still reads comics and recently decked his home office in his favorite collectibles and a giant Godzilla poster. “So instead of getting into trouble, I became a comic book nerd.”

This early exposure to reading and his mother’s value for education still motivates Ruiz today: “Earning a degree isn’t just a testament to her memory,他说. “But it shows that I am living with the values that she instilled in me and now I’m passing those on to my children.”

After earning his 商业学位 from DeVry, Lowe’s Companies, Inc., 专门从事家居装修的零售连锁店, contacted Ruiz with a job offer for a workforce consultant position at their corporate office—a role focusing on a mixture of store operations, 人力资源和配置IT系统.

“因为我在变革管理方面有经验, understand what the end users like and because I earned my degree, 我学到了很多关于商业的知识,鲁伊斯说. “在DeVry完成学业是我的最后一件事. I already had the work experience they needed and my degree was just the ‘bow on top’ that made me the all-encompassing package.”

Ruiz在GameStop工作了13年, he was ready for a change and accepted the position with Lowe’s.

到2020年3月, 在全球大流行期间, Ruiz started his position at the corporate headquarters for Lowe’s based in Mooresville, 北卡罗莱纳. 在很短的时间内, 他卖掉了他的房子, purchased a new home and moved his entire family—consisting of children ages 6, 13, 14和17，在全国范围内. While adjusting to change during a pandemic poses its own unique challenges, Ruiz plans to enjoy every moment of the process because he understands how much he has truly grown.

“I remember struggling with some bills about five years ago—before school and all of these opportunities—and now that’s not the reality I live in. 我的生活改善了，”鲁伊斯说. “Earning a degree at DeVry definitely helped enable a lot of this change.”