Associate of applied science, electric power technology
“I never thought I would be earning my college degree,” Chelsea admitted. “I went straight to a job after high school, and over the years, I did take some college courses on and off, but never thought I’d be able to complete a full degree.” Chelsea started with Eversource almost 15 years ago in customer service. Over the years, she has held many different positions in customer service, metering, and is currently a substation electrician.
When she started her training for her current role, she felt there was a gap in the theory portion, and decided to look into programs to help fill that gap. “I found the EPCE programs on the Eversource website and have also heard about it from other employees. After reviewing the options, the online electric power technology program offered by Bismarck State felt like the best fit for me,” Chelsea noted. She was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to transfer her credits from previous courses to count toward her degree. “I had heard horror stories from others where a school wouldn’t accept a lot of credits, but BSC was great to work with and I was able to apply almost all my credits.”
One aspect of the program Chelsea enjoyed was the block-style courses. “I liked that I could just focus on one course at a time and could ‘check it off the list’ and then move on to the next, so you felt like you were constantly making progress,” she noted. The content of the program also filled in the theory piece she had been missing, as well as provided her with both an overview and the opportunity to focus on a specialization. “I liked how they offered different specializations your final semester. I took the substation specialization, which was directly applicable to my current role,” Chelsea said.
Chelsea completed her degree in December of 2024, and has set her sights on further education. “I had always thought ‘college wasn’t for me,’ but here I am—a college graduate! Looking ahead, I would love to pursue a bachelor’s in energy management to help make myself even more marketable for future positions,” she said, continuing, “I don’t think people realize how many opportunities are available in the energy industry. Most people just think about lineman, but there are so many different career paths, and it’s a very stable industry because everyone needs electricity.”