Carson Marshall
B.A. Liberal Studies, 2001
M.A. Whole Systems Design — Organization Systems Renewal, 2003

Before he came to Antioch, Carson Marshall had danced professionally and had better than 200 credits toward a bachelor's degree in dance. The more he considered his options, the more he realized he wanted to pursue a master's degree that would allow him to delve into leadership of nonprofit organizations.

He turned to the Internet and started looking for people doing the work he wanted to do. He came upon an Antioch alumnus who had precisely the kind of career he envisioned for himself. That's when Marshall started to explore the Antioch website.

"I thought Antioch — when I first saw the name — was a Bible school," he concedes with a smile. He quickly realized the modern-day Antioch had no religious overtones.

"The changes in me were much more profound than I expected. I began to see who I was in the world and I started taking responsibility for my life."

The more he investigated, the more he realized how Antioch stood out among Washington state colleges. He decided he had found the perfect place not only to complete a bachelor's degree but also to prepare himself for just the right graduate program.

"The B.A. in Liberal Studies program supports everyone's unique exploration. The program design is intended to do that and is structured that way," Marshall says.

With the help of a degree committee, he determined what he needed to study for a bachelor's degree with a focus on nonprofit leadership. With design and evaluation help from business professionals with graduate degrees, he created independent studies to complement his classes.

Soon, he was taking graduate courses for undergraduate credit through Antioch's Center for Creative Change. He focused on organizational development, strategic leadership, organizational psychology, fund-raising and development, and whole systems design. This was terrific preparation for the path he,d take as an Antioch graduate student in whole systems design. However, Marshall says individualizing his B.A. program had much greater impact than he anticipated.

"The changes in me were much more profound than I expected. I began to see who I was in the world and I started taking responsibility for my life.

"It's elusive and hard to describe, but I realized I could create the way I want to present myself to the world. That was a big shift for me," he says.

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