Kevin Browne has a working wife; three small children; and a demanding job at Shady Brook Farms, a producer of all-natural turkey products located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Browne is the Safety and Security Senior Supervisor for Shady Brook’s turkey division, which is comprised of 2,000 employees. Based on such census-like information, one would never guess that Browne is also attending graduate school at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), located more than 400 miles away.

Browne is slated to graduate in May of 2000 with a master’s degree in environmental health and safety management from RIT, and he accomplished this without ever setting foot on campus through RIT’s distance learning program. RIT has one of the most successful and well-established distance learning programs in the country. With approximately 5,000 enrollments and 20 years experience in distance education, RIT currently offers seven master’s degrees, three undergraduate degrees, three advanced graduate certificates and thirteen undergraduate certificates all fully accredited and completely online. Students follow the same academic schedule as on-campus students; however, through the Internet, computer conferencing and other multimedia technologies, such as videotaped lectures, the classroom is delivered to a student’s home and/or workplace.

"I realized the only way I would be able to complete graduate-level work would be through a distance learning program," says Browne. "When I discovered that RIT has a distance learning graduate program in my career field, I was elated and pleased that I would be able to further my education, develop my career skills and obtain a graduate degree from such an outstanding university."

Nonetheless, it’s been a challenging educational path to pursue. " I forced myself and pushed hard by taking two classes each quarter so I can finish as soon as humanly possible," says Browne, who has a 4.0 GPA. "My family has been very supportive when asked to make sacrifices so I can study. It’s been difficult to integrate distance learning into the big picture. We have had to discuss and agree to the sacrifices that would have to be made in order to complete the program and achieve long-term goals."

One of those long-term goals was to increase his value to Shady Brook Farms, which has already benefited from Browne’s educational pursuits. "The courses I have taken at RIT have given me useful and invaluable tools and philosophies that I have applied and will continue to apply to everyday decisions that affect the safety of my employees," claims Browne. Additionally a resource reduction class Browne completed "provided me with many strategies for pollution prevention that I implemented and developed into a pollution prevention program that earns the company over $200,000 per year from wastes that were previously disposed of in a landfill."

Browne is responsible for ensuring Shady Brooks Farms’ compliance to OSHA, DOT and internal company rules and regulations. He’s also responsible for the physical security of the facilities he works at, as well as employee personal safety. He manages a staff of three Emergency Medical technicians, and he develops and implements all safety management systems and programs for his division. Such on-the-job experience is an added benefit to his classmates, who Browne communicates with regularly through online class discussions, email and team projects.

"I have contributed real-world experience to students that have not been working in the industry, and other classmates have done the same," he says. "When discussing companies in class and citing examples of management systems, we tend to discuss the leaders of industry, and this is not the total picture. I have offered different management perspectives from a non-leader of industry in how environmental health and safety issues are viewed."

Overall, Browne affirms that regardless of the help he has provided to others, has been the main beneficiary of his higher education. "The knowledge I have gained through completion of this program is invaluable to my career and myself. RIT is providing me with the tools and skills that are necessary to be a successful environmental, health and safety professional."

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