Finding Purpose and Direction: Heather Miller's Journey Through the B.S. in Psychology

For twenty years, Heather Miller stayed away from higher education. A former early childhood educator and full-time mom, she had plenty in her life already. But something kept pulling her back—a curiosity about human relationships, a desire to work more deeply in the healing field, and a growing sense that she needed to finish what she'd started.

"I finally felt like I had enough space and maturity to return to school and really tackle it," she says. When she did return, she chose California Institute of Integral Studies. 

Heather's path to CIIS was a deliberate one, ten years in the making. Having spent over a decade working in experiential learning with young children, she understood something important about herself as a learner: she learned best through relationships, play, and exploration. "The thing that attracted me to CIIS was that it looked like a place where those ways of gaining knowledge and experience in the world were valued," she explained.

Practical concerns mattered too. As a working mother with a young child, the program had to fit within the realities of her life. The online format, while initially a challenge, made it possible. Another draw was how CIIS valued life experience. "Within the application process, I found that my life experience and my prior academic experience was valued and accepted as the foundations that I would need in order to start school right away," she recalled. For someone returning after two decades, that recognition meant everything.

More Than She Expected

Heather had done her research and self-reflection, but even so, there was an element of the unknown to starting this new chapter, and the worry that comes with it. The academic world and the world in general had changed so much. She wasn’t sure what to expect.  

What she found was a cohort of students whose investment in learning surprised and moved her. "I didn't expect the high level of commitment and passion and intelligence from my colleagues in the program," she said. "It was really satisfying to be with a group of people who were not just ticking the boxes and getting a piece of paper, but because they were truly invested in making a difference in the world and truly invested in the learning that was available to them."

I didn't expect the high level of commitment, passion, and intelligence from my colleagues in the program. It was really satisfying to be with a group of people who were truly invested in making a difference in the world.
Heather Miller, Class of 2025, Bachelor of Science in Psychology

The students came from diverse backgrounds — education, coaching, addiction and recovery — but shared a common thread. "A lot of people in my cohort were already working in or around the field of psychology or had a deep interest in human relationships and in social systems," Heather observed. Each brought their own intent and purpose to the work.

Online Learning That Feels Alive

Heather was also candid about her initial anxiety regarding the online format. "I was really nervous about it being an online program," she says. She needed relationships to learn, and she wondered whether an online environment could provide them.
 

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It could. "The online environment was really dynamic. We had really robust discussions," she recalled. "I was nervous about needing relationships in order to learn, and those relationships were fostered well through both the course assignments and through the chats that we developed as a cohort." The cohort model — with relationships that persisted across semesters — proved to be the key. "I made friendships through this really strange life of being online with people that I feel like will persist for years."

Transformative Moments

Two experiences in particular stand out in Heather's memory. The first was a course in neurodiversity studies with Dr. Nick Walker. "I felt the amount of challenge that the group was experiencing to look at neurodiversity from a new paradigm," she said. "It also just felt especially important to be working with somebody who was pushing the field as a scholar and to have access to discussions that felt very ripe and very cutting edge."

The second — and ultimately most powerful — was her senior project. "Completing my senior project was the most transformative aspect. It was also the hardest thing I had ever done," Heather shared. Her research examined identity transition and postpartum experiences for first-time birthing people, drawing on her own lived experience. She conducted a qualitative study exploring birth storytelling and sense of self in the postpartum period.

Completing my senior project was the most transformative aspect. It was also the hardest thing I had ever done. It revealed how much greater my capacity for scholarship was than I ever imagined.
Heather Miller, Class of 2025, Bachelor of Science in Psychology

"It revealed how much greater my capacity for scholarship was than I ever imagined," she reflected. "It allowed me to deeply explore a topic that was personal to me and that I think will give me directionality in my career moving forward."

Heather’s ability to pursue the personal along with the professional is one of the advantages of an integral education, and it’s something that students can’t always understand until they’ve experienced it. "I read the words and it sounded great," Heather agreed. "But really that interpersonal transformation that is inevitably going to happen when you engage in meaningful relationships and you put your full self forward in any course of study is explicitly valued by the professors." What moved Heather most was being encouraged to bring her whole self into the classroom, and hearing from others who did the same. "I loved learning from personal experiences that people have had, from their family experiences, from their work experiences that came in and really animated the content of the class discussions."

Looking Forward

Since her graduation from the Bachelor of Science in Psychology program, Heather has found that, along with a sense of completion, she feels even more possibilities opening up. She is applying to the Master's in Counseling Psychology program — a long-held hope finally moving toward fruition. "It's something that I have thought about and dreamed about and talked about doing for years, and I feel ready to do it, but also really nervous to take the step," she says. She's looking at a few schools, but feels "really at home here" at CIIS. For someone who spent twenty years away from education, CIIS offered more than a degree. It offered community, purpose, and a place to take root. "Something brought me to CIIS to tap into those places of stability and of hope and a place where people were coming together to support one another's strength," Heather reflected, "to lean into their capacity to support a greater sense of healing and connection in the world."

Something brought me to CIIS to tap into those places of stability and of hope, and a place where people were coming together to support one another's strength, to lean into their capacity to support a greater sense of healing and connection in the world.
Heather Miller, Class of 2025, Bachelor of Science in Psychology