Busy Mom Earns MBA at Midway

Myndall Coffman of Versailles rattles off the list of duties typical for a busy working mother of two in our warp-speed culture:
Mom. Wife. Full-time employee at Central Baptist Hospital, not to mention her involvement with her son’s youth baseball team and her daughter’s gymnastics and Brownie Scout troop.

Oh, and add full-time MBA student as well.

That last part would not be possible if not for the Accelerated Degree Program at Midway College.

“When you’re a parent and working mom, time is of the essence,” she said. “Midway is so responsive, so accessible. It made everything possible for me.”

Coffman, 35, enrolled in her 17-member cohort in January of last year and will earn her MBA by November. She attends class just one night a week – Thursday at 6 p.m.

Although the Midway program is accessible, the work is demanding. More than once she felt overwhelmed. Thank goodness for her class-mates.

“When you feel like jumping off, they pull you back,” she said.

Her classmates are split along gender lines, range in age from 20 to 50-something, and are equally busy.

“I don’t know what I’d do without them,” Coffman said. “We’ve become very close. My daughter will be in the National American Miss Pageant, and three of my cohort members are her sponsors. We’re doing life together. We’ll have these relationships for the rest of our lives.”

The only one more supportive than her classmates is her husband, Randy, a 19-year Kroger employee who has picked up the slack at home.

“I couldn’t do any of this without him,” she said.

Central Baptist has picked up some of the financial slack with its tuition reimbursement program. Coffman is Director of Patient Access at the hospital with aspirations of promotion.

The Midway program is useful because Coffman’s capstone project links with her job.

“I’m working on researching effective communication between physicians and hospitals after healthcare reform,” she said.

Benefits abound for Coffman since she started the MBA program. She’s never been busier . . .  but Midway has smoothed out the process.

“I know the professors, and if I have a question or need help, I get an answer right away,” she said.

“It’s a small school, and everything is so easy. I can even park next to my classroom.

“Believe me, things like that make a difference.”