Alumni Profile: Christina MacDonald, Career and College Prep and Business – Accounting

At 38, Christina MacDonald returned to the classroom with a resumé full of sales experience, years of professional success and one unfinished piece of business. 

Christina left high school after Grade 10. In the years that followed, she built her career the way she learned to do everything: show up, learn fast and prove she could handle more. For more than a decade, she worked in sales, becoming a top performer before moving into leadership and managing her own team. 

By her mid-30s, though, she could feel herself reaching the end of that chapter. She was proud of what she’d built, but she wanted to finish what she’d left behind.  

That decision brought her to Loyalist College’s Career and College Prep program, where she began working toward her Academic and Career Entrance Certificate (ACE) — a Grade 12 equivalency. 

Coming back as an adult learner meant relearning how to be a student. Christina started with the basics: grammar and punctuation, writing essays and building study routines she could rely on for college-level work. 

The adjustment wasn’t easy. Some days, the material felt frustrating, and the distance to the finish line felt heavy. But in the Career and College Prep classroom, she found faculty who helped her stay with it. 

“The teachers in the Prep program were really like a lifeline,” Christina says. “They didn’t just teach me the material; they helped me believe in myself.” 

When Christina completed the program, she gained the credential she came for. Soon after, she was accepted into Loyalist’s Business – Accounting program. 

That next step came with new pressure: a full course load, younger classmates and the steady discipline it takes to keep pace in a demanding program. This time, Christina says, she had the academic groundwork and the confidence to match her work ethic. 

By the end of her first year, her grades were all above 90 percent. 

It was an outcome that once felt out of reach. Now, as she prepares for life after graduation, Christina can trace a straight line between the confidence she rebuilt in Career and College Prep and the success she’s found in Business – Accounting. 

“There is absolutely no way that I could have made it through my first year and now my second year in college without the footings that the Prep program faculty helped me build,” she says. “They taught me that it is never too late to start and to take control of your dreams and future.” 

Christina also credits her husband, Steven, whose love and encouragement helped make her return to school possible. 

For Christina, the message is simple: “It’s never too late to rewrite your story.” 

Learn more about Loyalist’s Career and College Prep program and pathways for students returning to school.