Thessalonia Joseph was a year into her bachelor’s degree when she realized she needed a change.
The New Orleans native enrolled at the University of ֱ at Lafayette as a nursing major. A year into the program, she discovered it wasn’t her passion but was still dedicated to pursuing a career in healthcare.
Working with her advisor, Joseph determined Health Services Administration would be a better fit and transitioned to UL Lafayette’s fully online degree program.
“I had been in roles before that dealt with management and administrative tasks, and I knew I enjoyed those things,” Joseph says. “I thought if I could pair that with healthcare, that would be perfect.” 
Although Joseph remained in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the program format was an entirely new experience.
“I was apprehensive at first because I didn’t really know how to study online,” she says. “When I got started, it was a little difficult managing the work because I wasn’t physically going to class, and it was easy to miss assignments. But eventually I had my own flow, and I actually preferred online courses. They allowed me to work while going to school.”
In addition to maintaining a part-time job throughout her college career, Joseph completed an internship with the human resources department at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center. That opportunity, she says, confirmed she was on the right path.
“Once I started my internship in human resources, I was very confident that I’d made the right choice,” she says. “I've chosen a fulfilling degree and career path; I’m very happy with the choice I’ve made.”
Health Services Administration’s interdisciplinary curriculum gives students a wide perspective of business and healthcare with courses in management, finance, and health information technology, as well as major courses on managing healthcare organizations.
Joseph says course content detailing civil compliance and demonstrating the difference between management and leadership resonated most for her.
“I’d recommend the program to someone looking to go into leadership,” she says. “The curriculum goes into not just management, but also the different cultures within health care and how to manage those cultures.”
Joseph started her career in July 2019 as a financial intake specialist at Lafayette-based LHC Group, a national provider of in-home healthcare services. Within a year, she was promoted to revenue cycle team lead.
She has no plans of slowing down.
“My goals moving forward are to keep moving up and gain more leadership,” she says. "I’d like more responsibility. In the future I’d like to see myself in a director role.”