The Program Evaluation course helped me to develop a wider range of skills that I feel is necessary to succeed within both academia and private domains. Although I do have experience with evaluating programs, this course teaches students how to develop and conduct a full evaluation independently. The decision making process in terms of topic, research methods, and statistics differ greatly in evaluation than in research. In fact, I had a difficult time drawing the line between evaluation from research. My biggest lesson learned in this course was that conducting a sound evaluation was very different from conducting sound research. In evaluation, politics, opinion, and environment of the institution directs the approach of the evaluator. However, in research, the researcher is the main decision maker. Therefore, I feel that my experience in this course helped me gain more confidence in my decision to (eventually) become a professor. Specifically, although I do enjoy conducting research, I realize that the reason why I like research is not because I like research methods, but because I am passionate about my topic. I am not sure if I would have selected the PhD path if it were not for my interest in researching issues specific to education, self-regulation, and motivation. However, this course equipped me with the skills necessary to market myself not only as a professor and researcher, but also to private non-academic industries.