2008 Woodie Awards
Cedar Rapids couple uses Kirkwood as a building block
Dodie Kauffman
Issue date: 4/29/04 Section: Feature
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Husband and wife, Matt and Heidi Dean, have been selected in their respective lines of study; business for Matt and nursing for Heidi.
The couple will transfer to Mount Mercy College in their chosen fields. Matt will be in the Marketing and Business Administration program and Heidi will be in Nursing.
Matt is the manager of the computer and data analysis departments at Ruffalo Cody and has been working for two years in advanced classes in the Accelerated Program at Kirkwood.
He said he would love to start his own business someday but needs a good foundation first. As a car nut, Matt said it would be fun to some day be a project manager in a creative automotive business.
During his first class in the advanced program, Business Law, Matt said he read 100 pages every week and did every problem.
"These classes pack a 16-week class into five weeks," Matt said. "And there is a lot of homework."
It is important to him to do well in college but it is also important to set realistic goals, he said.
In 1992, at the age of 21, Matt enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program at Kirkwood but after nine months of classes he said he realized it was not what he wanted to do.
His grade point average was only 1.73 when he left the program. He now has a 3.42 GPA and his goal before graduating is achieving at least a 3.5.
He postponed his degree until he was 26. After starting at Ruffalo Cody in 1993, he said he felt he needed to seize the opportunity presented to him since the company was experiencing massive growth and offering stock options.
As Ruffalo Cody underwent changes Matt said he felt the need to pursue his educational goals, so in 2001 he made the decision to sign up full-time in college while working 40 plus hours a week. That's when he began to tackle his education, he said.