UOPX alumni spotlight: Danny Flemings and Annette Musa

For many of us, it can take the right person at the right time to give us the push we need. This is certainly true of University of Phoenix alumni Danny Flemings (BSB/M, 2009) and Annette Musa (BSB/M, 2016), both of whom found themselves being pushed toward higher education.

For Musa, it was her older sister, a lawyer who never stopped pushing Musa to pursue a degree. “At the time it didn’t seem necessary,” says Musa, who had already worked her way from receptionist to market president for an investment firm. But her sister held firm, and Musa eventually agreed.

A push is just a push, however, until you take off running. Fortunately for Flemings and Musa — and fortunately for the bank where they both now work (Bank of America) — they both did just that, earning their degrees and demonstrating that the potential others saw in them was just the beginning.

By the time his regular customers encouraged Flemings to go back to school, he’d already come to view higher education as a juggling act he had tried before. “When I got out of the Navy, I tried to go get my degree,” he says, “but as a working adult, that was hard.”

When he researched UOPX, however, he realized he wouldn’t have to start over. “The thing that got me to University of Phoenix in the first place was they were accredited, and that they could help me transfer credit for the courses that I’d taken in community college.”

But even going back to school one night a week while working full time meant making adjustments: “I had to pause about halfway through because I actually got promoted,” recalls Flemings. “Being able to do that, and to take classes online [asynchronously], that worked out perfectly for me.”

Flemings was able to not only pause but, thanks to his strong work ethic and some fortuitous opportunities, also press fast-forward. After completing his degree, he applied for a program at Bank of America designed to give new college grads a chance to become an assistant manager. Flemings became a branch manager before the program even finished. He continued to rise through the ranks at Bank of America, first to market leader and then to his current role of regional operations manager, where he oversees more than 150 financial centers across southeastern Texas. It was a journey he didn’t expect to take, but it turned out to be just the right path: “It wasn’t all cookie cutter,” Flemings says, “because University of Phoenix helped me work on what fit for me.”

Annette Musa describes her decision to go back to school as her “own personal quest.” While she already had a job and years of experience, she wanted to prove to herself and others that she could accomplish it. Encouragement from her sister — the first member of their family to earn a degree — prompted Musa to try, and Musa’s two sons gave her the motivation she needed to see it through. 

Going back after years in the workforce can be hard for anyone, including Musa, who was still working full time as a market president for an investment firm. “It was really humbling,” she recalls, describing the adjustment of gathering course materials and reading syllabi.

It was the students and instructors, though, who made the experience especially memorable for her. “I really enjoyed meeting the people in my class or on my team,” Musa says. “It taught me how to work with people [who] were different than me.” (This lesson is one she brings to work daily as she manages diverse teams.)

Musa’s education may have begun as a personal quest, but it quickly turned into a professional one. When her company was reorganized, she was offered the choice to stay on or pursue other opportunities. She found that having her degree presented her with more options.

“Before that, my experience meant a lot,” says Musa, “but when I was back in the market looking for positions all those years later, lo and behold, it made huge difference as far as my next career step.”

Musa joined Bank of America Private Bank as a private client advisor — a position that requires a degree. Now Musa manages high-wealth clientele, especially families who want to leverage their finances toward creating “generational change” — the same change, she says, that her education helped her achieve for her and her family.

Both Flemings and Musa cite commitment to community values as a reason they chose to work there, and both fulfill this commitment through their employer and on their own time.

Flemings volunteers at his church and will be going on a mission trip to Africa this year. He also volunteers and supports a local food bank — work that is particularly important to Flemings since his own family relied on food banks when he was younger. “I get to go back to my roots,” he says.

Musa, who is Mexican American, serves on the Executive Board of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and advocates for the Hispanic community in her state.

These two alumni may have had two distinct career journeys, but thanks to those nudges they each received, they found themselves at a company where they can continue to grow and give back.

“It's never too late,” says Musa, “and it’s always better to be prepared, because you never know what you’ll be able to do.”

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