This is the first in an occasional series on staff and faculty who have taken advantage of Creighton’s tuition remission benefit – for themselves, their children or their spouse. Want to learn more about the tuition remission benefit? Visit the Human Resources website.
When Taunya Plater, BS’17, MS’21, senior program coordinator in the College of Professional Studies, started working at Creighton in 2003, she never imagined that she would later become a college graduate with multiple degrees.
Hired as a temporary employee through a staffing agency, the Omaha native quickly realized she wanted to work at Creighton full time. So when a position opened at the University six months later, she took it.
Plater began working with Rose Hill, former assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, who encouraged her to utilize the tuition remission benefit and improve her professional standing.
“Rose started out just like me, an administrative adult learner who went on to earn her master’s degree and was the epitome of who I wanted to be,” Plater says. “She was supportive, pushed me to be my best, and made opportunities available to do that.”
Over the next 10 years, Plater enrolled in a variety of undergraduate courses part time and took periods of time off to focus on having a family. But when the College of Professional Studies created an integrated leadership program, she became motivated to finish. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2017.
“All the classes were online, so I didn’t have to find a babysitter or go away from home. I could do it at night when my kids were asleep.”
Creighton soon developed a new graduate program that inspired Plater to go to graduate school — a dual-degree program in negotiation conflict resolution and organizational leadership.
Plater loved how the two focuses overlapped, almost naturally coexisting, she says. The NCR/ORGL dual-degree program brought a valuable level of depth and meaning to the courses and connection to Jesuits values. She earned her master’s degrees in 2021.
“The two really went together in my daily interactions working with students and in leadership. It’s taught me about how to be a transformational, transparent leader, and together, we can make changes that are needed. The program has made me realize I can give back to everyone who has given me so much, to the University, and be a servant leader.”
Plater says her college education pushed her to be better person, to think critically and has opened doors. She adds that she wouldn’t have pursued her degrees without the tuition remission benefit or support from faculty and staff such as Hill and many others.
“When you have people on campus who are so supportive of you, the people I worked for or had been my advisors, willing to push you forward, it’s really amazing. There were times I really wanted to give up, but people here said, ‘you can do it.’
“It’s really something I don’t think I can find anywhere else. I’m extremely grateful.”
