Editor's Note: This is the twelfth in a series of profiles of winter 2023 graduates.
Often students enroll at University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) in search of a fulfilling career. For Woodrow Bristow Jr., the career was already there. In fact, it was his 18 years of experience as an IT professional that opened the door to Bristow’s new Bachelor of Science in Computer Networks and Cybersecurity.Ěý
Bristow first began his educational journey at Essex Community College in Maryland as a biology major before switching his focus to pursue information technology training at Lincoln Technical Institute. He eventually received an associate degree from the Community College of Baltimore County.
His specialized work opened an interesting career trajectory that included employment as a contractor for Apple, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, T. Rowe Price, and the National Institutes of Health. At one point, he also served on the messaging team at the Social Security Administration.Ěý
Eventually, he landed at Johns Hopkins University in 2010 as a LAN engineer. Today he is an MS Exchange System engineer for Johns Hopkins Medicine.
In 2015, Bristow Jr. returned to work for Johns Hopkins Medicine. The education benefits offered by Johns Hopkins persuaded him to restart his college studies.ĚýÂ
John Auman, Bristow’s former instructor from the Community College of Baltimore County and an adjunct associate professor, at UMGC, told him about UMGC’s excellent cybersecurity program. That made the decision to apply easy and, in 2020, Bristow began working on a bachelor’s degree.
“The professors at ĐҸŁ±¦µĽş˝ are a star-studded cast and I had absolutely outstanding professors,” Bristow said. “My success coach Leslie Maddox was also excellent at guiding me through the that academic process, how to have balance between working full-time in IT and going to school full-time. She was a Doctoral student herself and understood what I was experiencing.”
Bristow noted that one of the biggest challenges was balancing all the academic requirements with a full-time work schedule. During his last semester, he took two classes, which he said was difficult.
“I needed to make sure I was disciplined and had enough time to complete my assignments,” he said. “I just have high standards for myself academically.”
Maddox described Woodrow Bristow as an amazing student with a lot of ambition.Ěý
“He always kept an open mind regarding his situations, and I was excited to assist him with his transition to the Master of Science in Cybersecurity Technology,” the career coach said. “He is really an amazing student.”Â
When Bristow turned up on Dec. 17 at UMGC’s Winter Grad Walk to receive his diploma, he was already two months into a UMGC master’s program in cybersecurity technology. Even more, he had a head start on the graduate degree. Because he completed his undergraduate degree at UMGC, he received six master’s program credits by completing his bachelor’s program capstone course, Introduction to Network Security (CMIT 320).Ěý
Bristow said he is excited for the future and how both degrees will shape his career at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
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