Faces of Global: Colleen Lazanich

Lazanich originally started pursuing her degree early on in life but then decided to take a step back and focus on work to take care of her family. “I had children young, so I was working and ended up finding great success within my job,” she shared. “I just got super busy with life and always said I would go back and finish when my daughter was in college.”

As time went on, Lazanich confessed that she wasn’t sure if going back to school was necessary. However, her mindset started to shift when a change in management occurred at her company that presented new challenges. Lazanich decided that it was time to change jobs and realized receiving her degree would help. “Searching for a job at my career level without a college degree was super challenging, so I decided to go back to school,” she said.

Lazanich knew going to school online would be the best approach in helping her obtain her degree successfully. “Doing it online was the only thing that really made sense for me because I was working full-time and had a family,” she noted. “I researched online universities and wanted one that had a really good program. When I looked into CSU Global, I saw that they focused on veterans and on people who were already working, and it was really clear that their programs meant more than just a mail-in certificate.”

Her decision to attend CSU Global was solidified when her cousin, who is a high school teacher, confirmed that she was making the right choice. “He told me, ‘That’s amazing! They have a really great program,’ and he pointed out that real learners thrive when doing school online because you have to be motivated to truly learn and can’t just get a degree for showing up.”

Lazanich chose to enroll in CSU Global’s B.S. in Business Management program and minor in Organizational Leadership. Her classes helped her overcome the challenges she was facing at work. “I processed a lot,” she shared. “Since I was studying organizational leadership, a lot of my papers were centered around my business and working life, so it helped me process a lot of what was going on. My classes also helped me become even more self aware and look at what was happening from an outside point of view.”

In 2016, Lazanich graduated from CSU Global, and five years later she took a job at CalNonprofits Insurance Services where she is currently the CEO. She took the job because she was excited by the opportunity to impact people’s lives through her work. “The company I had left unhappily was an insurance carrier for non-profit organizations, and I really missed working with the non-profits and adding another level of purpose to what I did in my life,” she explained.

As soon as she came onboard, Lazanich began to transform the company in a positive way. “Immediately it was clear that the culture in the organization wasn’t great and technologically they were way behind,” she noted. “I’m really proud of the 180-degree transformation we achieved. We ended up winning a National Technology in Insurance award. Culturally, we flipped the script and built a very inclusive organization, and we grew 14% last year with staff growing at about the same rate.”

Lazanich is excited to continue to grow the company and lead it through successful goal completion over the next few years. She credits CSU Global for helping her clinch her current role. “I don’t know that they would’ve selected me as the CEO without my degree,” she noted.

Lazanich also emphasized that continuing her education was well worth it. “A lot of people would’ve asked why at that point in your career, when you were already a VP, would you not just coast through the rest of it? But the insights I gained from my classes were invaluable for this role. Even if you’re at a later point in your career like I was, it’s still worth it to earn your degree. I enjoyed all of my classes and I learned something in every class!”

We love hearing from our students and learning more about their personal CSU Global experiences. We hope they inspire you as much as they inspire us!