When the idea of returning to “school” comes up, many professionals are hesitant. They are leading demanding lives with commitments to work, family, and community. Also, they have likely reached a level of autonomy in their work where the idea of completing assignments for the sake of doing so and according to someone else’s arbitrary timeline is simply demotivating. Quantic is designed to counter these typical demotivators. First, it offers students the autonomy to balance their lives and their studies. Second, the assignments are interesting and have the clear purpose of strengthening the “stickiness” of the concepts you’ll learn. Third, you’ll find your classmates to be interesting, ambitious and collaborative. Building community among classmates can feel like a unique challenge given that it’s a global program with no physical campus. However, I found that if you put the effort into attending virtual events, as well as in-person gatherings and leverage the networking features including the map of alumni and current students in your geographical area, building community is possible!