Originally from Norfolk, Nebraska, Andrea Omegah moved to Texas when she was only a few years old. At only 19, she got hired at Citi bank, which set her on a path for career in management. Now, almost 17 years later, she has worked her way up to Assistant Vice President.
Due to Citi offering tuition reimbursement, Andrea had the opportunity to go back to school to pursue her Bachelors degree. She chose UNT because she was living in Irving, and it was close, plus she liked the campus.
Andrea graduated with a degree in sociology in 2015. Despite her choice in major, she originally wanted to be a nurse from the early age of seven. After getting hurt one day while out with her niece and nephew, she realized that career path wasn’t for her. When she decided to go back to school, everything changed.
“I had a moment where I said ‘what am I going to do now?’,” Andrea said. “When I envisioned my future, I never saw myself in a uniform. Management was really what I had been thinking the whole time.”
So why not major in management?
“My spirit was like, you already have so many years in management,” Andrea said. “Since I was already a manager, I went to school for sociology since management classes only get you so far.”
She decided to pursue a degree in something she was passionate about, which was people.
“I love people, and they would always say ‘make sure you don’t go to college for the money’,” Andrea said. “Then, while you are in school, you’ll enjoy learning.”
While at UNT, she was extremely busy balancing her workload of managing 12-13 people at a time, taking classes and planning her wedding. She would split her shift, working from 6:30 a.m. till 12, driving to Denton for a few hours for classes, then driving back to finish her shift.
“Studying at UNT made me feel like I could achieve anything,” Andrea said. “The teachers were very understanding of my schedule because of my job.”
She learned such perseverance from her parents: her dad, who went to school and held a job to support their family, and her mom, who raised Andrea and her two siblings singlehandedly after their father passed away.
One of the biggest obstacles about juggling a job and school was that she wasn’t able to enjoy her college experience as much as others.
“You have to give your job 100% and school 100%,” Andrea said. “ It makes it easier to advocate for higher education; you can do it at any age.”
As for plans for the future, Andrea wants to go back to college to pursue her Masters degree, where she is leading towards strategic management.
“The advice I would give is the same advice someone else gave me; find a topic or a career you really love, and go after that,” Andrea said. “It makes classes and going to school easier. Never think it is too late; it’s never too late to go back to school.”