Angie Myer

Hi Boni, Thank you for sharing your perceptions on the practicality and costs of degree programs. You bring up an interesting point. As you have seen by other posts, many want to move toward degrees for a stronger educational foundation, credibility, and portability. However, currently our profession does not monetarily award degrees over certificates. Your point about increased costs should also be considered in today's market. However, I would add that this is true with "long certificates" as well, and the students still don't have the benefit of a degree at the end. I think it's an interesting conversation to… >>>

Malia, Thank you for sharing how you apply this to esthetics where product knowledge is so important. One thing to consider is that our research literacy competency emphasizes that students learn where to find and evaluate "quality research". The challenge I see for the assignment you describe is getting students beyond relying on the company information and using peer-reviewed trade journals which have evaluated the efficacy of products or ingredients. It would be interesting to see how much of this has been done in the field. Research literacy has been growing in massage/bodywork for the past ten years; we will… >>>

Chris, Thank you for sharing how the AOS works at your school. I want to highlight the benefits of the degree you cited for others: "We have discovered that the students spend the first year learning the basics and working out the kinks. The second year is spent completing the areas of specialty and refining their craft. The employer feedback has been that our AOS grads need less on the job training, they move up the pay scale more rapidly, and they are better prepared for employment. For those students who are going into self employment, they have a larger… >>>