A Degree Is Not a Destination

Find Your Direction Before Your Degree

When I think about graduate school, I don’t think about it as simply getting another degree. I think about it as a decision connected to where you are trying to go and, sometimes, helping you figure that out in the first place.

I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. After graduating, I took a job at a Tyson chicken processing plant and somehow found myself as a supervisor despite having zero supervisory experience. Apparently, a degree in economics and a willingness to show up were enough to qualify me. Three months later, I realized that the corporate setting wasn’t for me and I left my uniform on my manager’s desk on my way out, never to return.

Not long after that, my father and I started a barber college that involved community-centered work. It was my first entrepreneurial experience, but I found myself more activated by the social enterprise work I was doing on the side. I knew I wanted to continue doing that kind of work, but I also wanted to explore the world and experience community development beyond what I knew at home.

Looking back, my decision to study economics wasn’t connected to a specific career I had in mind. I simply wanted a solid major that would give me good job opportunities and options after graduation. I was still figuring out what I wanted to do, but that didn’t stop me from pursuing a master’s degree in business at Trevecca Nazarene University. 

I graduated in 2014 and entered the Peace Corps in March 2015. At the time, I was already running a business, and I thought having a master’s degree in business would help me be taken more seriously and validate my experience as an entrepreneur. I didn’t go into the Peace Corps thinking, “I need another degree.” Rather, I was thinking, “I need to figure out what I want to do with what I already have.”

The full-immersion experience of the Peace Corps (and the fact that it didn’t require a person to pay to join a volunteer project abroad) would allow me to see what community building looked like in a different place and culture. I wanted to step outside of Nashville and experience the world in a way that would challenge me to see things differently.

My experience in Paraguay did just that, giving me something I don’t think you can get from sitting in a classroom: time to really learn about yourself. I had to listen, adapt, build relationships, and recognize that the way I thought something should work wasn’t necessarily the way it needed to work. Those lessons changed how I thought about the kind of work I wanted to do and, just as importantly, the kind of person I wanted to be while doing it.

Peace Corps gives volunteers 27 months to learn about themselves, the community they serve, and the kind of work they actually enjoy. Maybe you discover that you love the work you’re doing. Maybe you discover that you absolutely don’t want to do it again. Both are valuable discoveries.

I didn’t complete the full 27 months of my service in Paraguay, but even though my service ended earlier than I expected, my time in-country taught me a lot. Even the many volunteers whose service ends early for personal, medical, or other reasons bring lessons home from the experience.

They’ve had to adapt, to figure things out without always having the answers. They’ve had to navigate unfamiliar environments. They’ve had to build relationships with people very different from them. That tells a person something about who they are and what they want.

What did I do with those lessons? I went back to graduate school.

After the end of my service, I pursued another master’s degree in TESOL, this time from Grand Canyon University. Even though it represented a new direction, I was wise enough to know I would make the most of it because it was intentional. I didn’t want another credential just to have another credential. I wanted something that could help me continue the work I was interested in while opening doors to possibilities I hadn’t yet imagined.

Looking back, I see it as part of a natural progression to finding my unique journey: my first master’s gave me a business foundation. Peace Corps helped me understand that I wanted to use that foundation in community-centered and international work. My TESOL degree gave me another tool to do that work.

And the path that work has put me on, as a published author, speaker, and, as some might say, an influencer, gets more rewarding every day.

Jerome Moore (Paraguay 2015) is a Nashville, TN native, Emmy-nominated TV host and producer, TEDx speaker, storyteller, and author of Deep Dish Conversations: Voices of Social Change in Nashville.