About

Lunch Lady No More

Betty Patterson was a self-described “lunch lady” for a local public school when she decided she wanted something more for herself and her family. She found the Danville, Kentucky campus and the associate degree program in business administration management was the perfect fit for her. “I loved the small classes, I loved the one-on-one with the instructors, I loved that they took time to get to know you.”

At first the adjustment was tough for the working mom, but she soon found her rhythm. “With my three daughters, it helped them,” Betty relates. “They were struggling in school, and they saw me working hard, studying every day, taking notes…and we would actually have homework time where we would all sit at the dinner table and do homework together.” Betty adds that her daughters teachers’ credited her example as being instrumental in marked improvement in all of her daughters’ performance at school.

National gave me the courage, they helped me to grow

Today, she works for a Danville Certified Public Accountant (CPA), who performs payroll and accounting services for a variety of business clients, as well as corporate and individual tax services. How does a management graduate end up working in an accounting firm? National’s in-depth curricula make it possible. “Because of the drive that I have, and the things that I [picked] up through the [courses] I did take, it helped me to go after this position,” Betty explains. One of her National College instructors, Ed Musick, had arranged for her to complete an externship, and later hired her as a part-time employee. As her graduation approached, he recommended her to a CPA that he knew. “He gave him my name, and he hired me on the spot,” says Betty.

“National gave me the courage, they helped me to grow,” Betty says. “It was the best decision I ever made. The best.”